System and method for providing coupon-less discounts based on a user broadcasted message

ABSTRACT

The systems and methods provide an offer to a user that may be accepted by the user through an action by the user. The action may be, for example, a broadcast through a social media channel. The parameters of the offer may defined that the broadcast comprise an offer identifier and may require that a user take subsequent action to fulfill the offer. The systems and methods may also be configured to monitor one or more broadcast channels, identify the source of a broadcast, identify transaction accounts associated with the source, evaluate transaction data associated with the transaction account, and provide benefits to the source and/or the transaction account.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 13/411,281entitled “System and Method for Providing Coupon-Less Discounts Based ona User Broadcasted Message” filed on Mar. 2, 2012. The '281 applicationis a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 13/153,890 entitled “Systemand Method for Administering Marketing Programs” filed Jun. 6, 2011. The'890 application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 12/857,389entitled “System and Method for E-Mail Based Rewards” filed on Aug. 16,2010. The '389 application claims priority to U.S. Ser. No. 11/779,734,entitled “Loyalty Incentive Program Using Transaction Cards,” filed onJul. 18, 2007. The '734 application claims priority to U.S. ProvisionalSer. No. 60/831,457, filed Jul. 18, 2006. The present application isalso a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 13/021,237 entitled“Systems and Methods for Providing Location Based Coupon-Less Offers toRegistered Card Members” filed on Feb. 4, 2011. The present applicationis also a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 13/188,693 entitled“System and Method for Coupon-Less Product Level Discounts” filed onJul. 22, 2011. The disclosures of each are incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods forproviding marketing partners an automated platform for managingpromotions, and more particularly, to systems and methods forestablishing and maintaining loyalty incentive programs and otherpromotions that permit consumers to receive discounts and notices ofdiscounts, without requiring a coupon to be redeemed.

BACKGROUND

Loyalty, incentive or reward programs are typically used as a form ofhighly customizable and targeted marketing. A loyalty program provideroften attracts customers who sign-up for a loyalty program. Shoppingbenefits such as discounts are offered to the customers by the provider.The provider then markets to merchants that the provider can bringcustomers to the merchant. For example, a loyalty program provider mayapproach a merchant (e.g., the clothing retailer GAP® Inc.) with an overto bring customers to the GAP® in exchange for a fee. The provider wouldthen send a solicitation (via email or regular mail) to its customersoffering, for example, a 10% discount coupon that may be redeemed at theGAP® on a particular day. The success of the solicitation can beassessed based on the number of coupons redeemed.

In such a loyalty solicitation, the merchant would usually pay theloyalty program provider a percentage of the sales (e.g., 10%) thatresult from the solicitation. The merchant benefits from the increasedsales. The loyalty program provider benefits from the commission that itreceives, and the customers benefit from the received discount.

There are several areas that could be improved in such traditionalloyalty programs. For example, such traditional programs suffer fromleakage. Leakage occurs when the merchant does not fully report salesresulting from the solicitation. Leakage results in loss revenues forthe loyalty program provider. Further, administrative marketing programssuch as coupon redemption is costly. For example, setting up andmaintaining offers, eligibility criteria, redemption criteria, reportingcriteria and other functions of a promotion system traditionallyrequires business analysts of the reward program platform provider tomanually configure the platform. What is needed is a marketing andpromotions platform that enables intelligent, automated (e.g., viaapplication programming interfaces) interfaces with a reward platform.

SUMMARY

In various embodiments, a computing platform includes applicationprogramming interfaces that enable third parties to create, configure,manage, modify, update, delete, report on, and enhance reward offers andmarketing programs. For example, a program provider may wish to create acustom application (“partner application”) that serves as a front-end orinterface with the computing platform. The partner application accessesthe computing platform via various application programming interfaces(APIs). In various embodiments, a marketing program is set up andmerchants are associated with the marketing program. Offers are createdand associated with the program and/or the merchant and customers areoffered and signed up for the offers.

In various embodiments, an automated marketing system comprises: anetwork interface communicating with a memory, the memory communicatingwith a processor for automated marketing and storing a computer programand a plurality of application programming interfaces (APIs); and theprocessor, when executing a computer program, performs operations. Theoperations include receiving, by the processor and via an offer setupAPI, a first offer setup request, wherein the offer setup API is fromthe plurality of APIs; parsing, by the processor, the offer set uprequest into a plurality of first offer parameters; validating, by theprocessor, at least one of the offer setup request and the first offerparameters; in response to the validating, notifying, by the processor,a first approver of the offer setup request; receiving, by the processorand from the first approver, an approval of the offer set up request;saving, by the processor and to the memory, a first offer comprising thefirst offer parameters, wherein the first offer is associated with afirst marketing program; and determining, by the processor, a firstpopulation comprising a plurality of transaction accounts that complywith first offer criteria, wherein the first offer parameters comprisethe first offer criteria.

In various embodiments, the first offer criteria comprise at least oneof a customer identifier, a customer demographic, a customer location,spend frequency, a spend threshold, a spend history, an award cap, atiered reward requirement, a product identifier, a product category, astock-keeping unit (SKU), a universal product code (UPC), a QR code, amerchant, a merchant type, an industry, a merchant location.

In various embodiments, operations performed by the system includereceiving via an enrollment API from the plurality of APIs, a firstenrollment setup-request; validating the first enrollment setup-request,wherein the validating comprises determining that the first enrollmentsetup request is associated with at least one of the first offer and asecond offer; receiving an approval of the first enrollmentsetup-request from at least one of the first approver and the secondapprover; parsing the first enrollment setup request into firstenrollment parameters and saving the first offer enrollment parametersto the memory and receiving a first offer acceptance from a first userassociated with a first transaction account from the first population.

In various embodiments, a method for operating a loyalty incentiveprogram includes the following steps; a list of participating merchantsis received; a list of participating account holders is received; arecord of charge corresponding to a purchase by an account holdercustomer is received from a merchant, and upon receipt, an account ofthe account holder customer is debited by the amount of the charge, amerchant identification contained in the record of charge is comparedwith the list of participating merchants, and an account holderidentification contained in the record of charge is compared with thelist of participating account holders. If the account holder is aparticipating account holder and the merchant is a participatingmerchant, then it is determined whether the record of charge qualifiesfor a rebate credit. If the record of charge qualifies for a rebatecredit, then the rebate credit is provided to an account of the accountholder customer.

In various embodiments, a method includes the following steps:participation of a merchant in a loyalty incentive program is solicited;an offer from a participating merchant is received; enrollment of anaccount holder customer to the loyalty incentive program is solicited;the offer is provided to an enrolled account holder customer;information is received which relates to a purchase by the enrolledaccount holder customer in accordance with the over from theparticipating merchant; an amount of a discount in accordance with theoffer is calculated; and the amount of the discount is provided to atransaction account provider so that an account of the enrolled accountholder customer is credited in the amount of the discount.

In various embodiments, a method for managing a rewards program includesmonitoring spend data associated with a transaction account. The spenddata may be analyzed and compared to a set of criteria (spend levels atparticular merchants, spend level on classes of products, spend level ina particular region). The transaction account may then be assigned toone or more transaction account populations based on spend data andcriteria. The spend data associated with the transaction account is alsoanalyzed to determine whether a beneficiary of the transaction accountqualifies for a reward in accordance with a rewards program. Where thespend data complies with the rules governing the rewards program, areward (e.g. a credit of monetary value to the transaction account, amerchant prepaid account, a discount, a credit of loyalty points) isprovided to a beneficiary of the transaction account. The spend dataactivities associated with the transaction accounts of the populationare also monitored. Where the activities comply with criteria associatedwith the transaction account population, a rewards offer (an offer of acredit of monetary value to the transaction account, a merchant prepaidaccount, a discount, a credit of loyalty points) is sent to owner oftransaction accounts associated with the population.

In various embodiments, the criteria may be established by a merchant ora prepaid account issuer. Enrollment in a transaction account populationmay be automatic or may include registration by the owner of thetransaction account. Further features of various embodiments, as well asthe structure and operation of various embodiments are described indetail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The present disclosure includes systems, methods, and articles forproviding location based coupon-less offers, based upon a location of aparticipant (e.g., card member (CM)). A location of a CM may bedetermined based upon one or more of a travel itinerary, a GPS aproximity of a mobile communication device to a cellular base station,and/or a zip code. A CM may register to receive a coupon-less offer. Anoffer from a merchant registered to provide coupon-less offers may betransmitted to a mobile communication device based upon the location. Anoffer, once accepted by a CM, may be matched to a record of chargeassociated with a transaction account held by the CM. A credit may beapplied to the CM's transaction account and a debit may be applied to atransaction account of the registered merchant. A credit may be appliedbased upon a transaction complying with one or more criteria specifiedby a registered merchant for a coupon-less offer. An exemplary criterioncomprises a spend level on a class of products. One or more offercategories and/or one or more offer category classes may be transmittedto the mobile communication device based upon the CM's location.

Systems and methods for managing a product level discount are provided.In various embodiments, a product level discount may be managed, by acomputer based system, during a transaction. The system may receive atransaction identifier associated with a transaction, where thetransaction identifier comprises a transaction value, a customer accountidentifier, a merchant identifier, and a product identifier. The productidentifier may be assessed, by the computer based system, to determinewhether the transaction qualifies for a rebate credit in accordance witha predetermined offer. Furthermore, a value is determined of any rebatecredit based on the transaction information and the predetermined offer.In an exemplary embodiment, the computer based system for managing aproduct level discount comprises a network interface communicating witha memory, where the memory communicates with a processor for managing aproduct level discount, and the processor, when executing a computerprogram, is configured to receive, by the processor, the transactionidentifier associated with a transaction, assess the product identifierto determine whether the transaction qualifies for the rebate credit inaccordance with the predetermined offer, and determine the value of therebate credit.

The product level discount management may include determining whetherthe transaction qualifies for the rebate credit, based on at least oneof the customer account identifier and the merchant identifier.Furthermore, the product level discount management may also includeverifying, by the computer based system, that the transaction has beencompleted, and applying the rebate credit to a customer accountassociated with the customer identifier after completion of thetransaction. The product identifier could be a stock-keeping unit (SKU)code. The SKU code may be the basis for qualifying for the rebatecredit. Furthermore, a merchant associated with the merchant identifier,which is part of the transaction, does not need to be informed of theapplication of the rebate credit to the customer account. From theviewpoint of a merchant, a product level discount may be appliedpost-transaction and the merchant may have no knowledge of the applieddiscount. In various embodiments, the product level discount managementmay include applying the rebate credit to the transaction at the pointof sale, and determining authorization of the transaction after theapplying the rebate credit.

The predefined offer may be sent to the user associated with thecustomer account identifier to incentivize completion of thetransaction. The determination of who receives the predefined offer canbe based (at least in part) on the transaction history of the user.Furthermore, the qualification for the rebate credit may be based (atleast in part) on an aggregate transaction history of the userassociated with the customer account identifier. Also, the qualificationfor the rebate credit may be based (at least in part) on the productidentifier corresponding to at least one of a particular product or avendor. A user (or customer in this case) can receive the predefinedoffer in a variety of ways. For example, the customer can also receivethe predefined offer on a portable electronic device. Moreover, invarious embodiments, the customer account identifier may include aunique identifier associated with the portable electronic device. Theunique identifier associated with the portable electronic device may beused to match the transaction to the customer account identifier.

In various embodiments, the systems and methods described herein providean offer to a user that may be accepted by the user through an action bythe user. The action may be a broadcast through a social media channel.For example, the broadcast may be a tweet from a Twitter account thatcomprises a particular offer identifier. The offer identifier maycomprise particular elements associated with a merchant, product, brand,account issuer, loyalty program provider, rewards, and/or the like. Theparameters of the offer may define that the broadcast comprise an offeridentifier and may require that a user take subsequent action to fulfillthe offer. For example, once a CM has associated with offer with a CM'stransaction account, the CM may be required to spend at a particularlevel with a sponsoring merchant, buy a particular product designated bya sponsoring manufacturer, or spend in a particular region designated bya sponsoring organization. The systems and methods described herein mayalso be configured to monitor one or more broadcast channels, identifythe source of a broadcast, identify transaction accounts associated withthe source, evaluate transaction data associated with the transactionaccount, and provide benefits to the source and/or the transactionaccount.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

A more complete understanding of the present disclosure may be derivedby referring to the detailed description and claims when considered inconnection with the Figures, wherein like reference numbers refer tosimilar elements throughout the Figures, and:

FIG. 1 is a high level flow diagram of a process for providing loyaltyincentives to an account holder customer in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 2 is a high level flow diagram showing data management flow ofaccount holder customer information and participating merchantinformation for transaction matching in the process of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary output file of matched transactions withcorresponding statements of credit to an account holder customer anddebit to participating merchants.

FIG. 4 is a detailed high level flow diagram of the process of FIG. 1,in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5A is a detailed high level flow diagram of the process performedby a system for managing offers based on user broadcasts, in accordancewith various embodiments;

FIG. 5B is screenshot of a step performed by a system executing theprocess illustrated in FIG. 5A, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5C is screenshot of a step performed by a system executing theprocess illustrated in FIG. 5A, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5D is screenshot of a step performed by a system executing theprocess illustrated in FIG. 5A, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5E is screenshot of a step performed by a system executing theprocess illustrated in FIG. 5A, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5F shows an exemplary system diagram, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 5G is a detailed high level flow diagram of the process performedby the system illustrated by FIG. 5F, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 5H is screenshot of a step performed by a system executing theprocess illustrated in FIG. 5G, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5I is screenshot of a step performed by a system executing theprocess illustrated in FIG. 5G, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5J is screenshot of a step performed by a system executing theprocess illustrated in FIG. 5G, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 5K is screenshot of a step performed by a system executing theprocess illustrated in FIG. 5A, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary system diagram, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart depicting an exemplary method for providinglocation based offers to a registered transaction account holder;

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary screenshot depicting a mobile offer linkdisplayed on a client or mobile device, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 9A shows an exemplary screenshot depicting a landing page, inaccordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 9B shows an exemplary screenshot depicting an offer page, inaccordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 9C shows an exemplary screenshot depicting an offer category page,in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 10 includes a flow chart illustrating a process of a financialinstitution for managing a product-level discount, in variousembodiments;

FIG. 11 includes a flow chart illustrating a process of a user in aproduct-level discount system, in various embodiments;

FIG. 12A-12B includes flow charts illustrating an exemplary process fortransmitting transaction information in a product-level discountmanagement system, in accordance with various embodiments.

FIG. 13 is a high level flow diagram showing data flow of account holdercustomer information and participating merchant information fortransaction matching, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of a transaction matching process, inaccordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustrating the processes associated withindividual steps shown in FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of transaction based data flow between a thirdparty loyalty program provider and a transaction account provider, inaccordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 17 is a high level flow diagram of a process of providing loyaltyincentives to an account holder customer using a transaction card issuedby a third party transaction account provider;

FIG. 18 is another high level flow diagram of the process of FIG. 17,providing an exemplary credit statement of the third party transactionaccount provider, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 19 is a diagram of a method for determining whether a returnrelates to a purchase for which a rebate credit was provided to theaccount holder customer, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 20 is a diagram of another method for determining whether a returnwas made on a purchase in which the account holder received a discountcredit, in accordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 21 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system used forimplementing an embodiment; and

FIG. 22 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system used forimplementing an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for providingloyalty incentives to an account holder customer and operating a loyaltyincentive program. The present system is now described in more detailherein in terms of an exemplary embodiment. This is for convenience onlyand is not intended to limit the application of the present disclosure.While specific configurations and arrangements are discussed, it shouldbe understood that this is done for illustrative purposes only. In fact,after reading the following description, it will be apparent to oneskilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement the following exemplaryembodiments. A person skilled in the pertinent art will recognize thatother configurations and arrangements can be used without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to aperson skilled in the pertinent art that this disclosure can also beemployed in a variety of other applications.

The terms “user,” “end user,” “consumer,” “customer,” “participant,”and/or the plural form of these terms are used interchangeablythroughout herein to refer to those persons or entities capable ofaccessing, using, being affected by and/or benefiting from the tool thatthe present disclosure provides for the rewards program describedherein. This includes both individual consumers and corporate customerssuch as, for example, small businesses.

The term cardmember, CM, and/or the plural form of these terms shallmean any person, entity, government organization, business, machineassociated with a transaction account, regardless of whether a physicalcard is associated with the account. For example, the cardmember and/orCM may include a transaction account owner, an transaction account user,an account affiliate, a child account user, a subsidiary account user, abeneficiary of an account, a custodian of an account, or any otherperson or entity affiliated or associated with a transaction account.

Furthermore, the terms “service provider,” “service establishment,”“business” or “merchant” may be used interchangeably with each other andshall mean any person, entity, distributor system, software and/orhardware that is a provider, broker and/or any other entity in thedistribution chain of goods or services. For example, a service providermay be a retail store, a hotel company, an airline company, a travelagency, an on-line merchant or the like.

A “transaction account” as used herein refers to an account associatedwith an open account or a closed account system (as described below).The transaction account may exist in a physical or non-physicalembodiment. For example, a transaction account may be distributed innon-physical embodiments such as an account number, frequent-flyeraccount, telephone calling account or the like. Furthermore, a physicalembodiment of a transaction account may be distributed as a financialinstrument.

A financial transaction instrument may be traditional plastictransaction cards, titanium-containing, or other metal-containing,transaction cards, clear and/or translucent transaction cards, foldableor otherwise unconventionally-sized transaction cards, radio-frequencyenabled transaction cards, or other types of transaction cards, such ascredit, charge, debit, pre-paid or stored-value cards, or any other likefinancial transaction instrument. A financial transaction instrument mayalso have electronic and communications functionality. Suchfunctionality may be enabled, for example, by: a network of electroniccircuitry that is printed or otherwise incorporated onto or within thetransaction instrument (and typically referred to as a “smart card”); afob having a transponder and an RFID reader; and/or near fieldcommunication (NFC) technologies. For more information regarding NFC,refer to the following specifications all of which are incorporated byreference herein: ISO/IEC 18092/ECMA-340, Near Field CommunicationInterface and Protocol-1 (NFCIP-1); ISO/IEC 21481/ECMA-352, Near FieldCommunication Interface and Protocol-2 (NFCIP-2); and EMV 4.2 availableat http://www.emvco.com/default.aspx.

“Open cards” are financial transaction cards that are generally acceptedat different merchants. Examples of open cards include the AmericanExpress®, Visa®, MasterCard® and Discover® cards, which may be used atmany different retailers and other businesses. In contrast, “closedcards” are financial transaction cards that may be restricted to use ina particular store, a particular chain of stores or a collection ofaffiliated stores. One example of a closed card is a pre-paid gift cardthat may only be purchased at, and only be accepted at, a clothingretailer, such as the clothing retailer Gap®, Inc.

Stored value cards are forms of transaction instruments associated withtransaction accounts, wherein the stored value cards provide cashequivalent value that may be used within an existing payment/transactioninfrastructure. Stored value cards are frequently referred to as gift,pre-paid or cash cards, in that money is deposited in the accountassociated with the card before use of the card is allowed. For example,if a customer deposits ten dollars of value into the account associatedwith the stored value card, the card may only be used for paymentstogether totaling no more than ten dollars.

With regard to use of a transaction account, users may communicate withservice providers in person (e.g., at the box office), telephonically,or electronically (e.g., from a user computer via the Internet). Duringthe interaction, the service provider may offer goods and/or services tothe user. The service provider may also offer the user the option ofpaying for the goods and/or services using any number of availabletransaction accounts. Furthermore, the transaction accounts may be usedby the service provider as a form of identification of the user. Theservice provider may have a computing unit implemented in the form of acomputer-server, although other implementations are possible.

In general, transaction accounts may be used for transactions betweenthe user and service provider through any suitable communication means,such as, for example, a telephone network, intranet, the global, publicInternet, a point of interaction device (e.g., a point of sale (POS)device, personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile telephone, kiosk, etaonline communications, off-line communications, wireless communications,and/or the like.

An “account,” “account number” or “account code,” as used herein, mayinclude any device, code, number, letter, symbol, digital certificate,smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow a consumer to access,interact with or communicate with a financial transaction system. Theaccount number may optionally be located on or associated with anyfinancial transaction instrument (e.g., rewards, charge, credit, debit,prepaid, telephone, embossed, smart, magnetic stripe, bar code,transponder or radio frequency card).

The account number may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency (RF), NFC, wireless, audio and/oroptical device capable of transmitting or downloading data from itselfto a second device. A customer account number may be, for example, asixteen-digit credit card number. Each credit card issuer has its ownnumbering system, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used byAmerican Express Company of New York, N.Y.

A merchant account number may be, for example, any number oralpha-numeric characters that identify a particular merchant forpurposes of card acceptance, account reconciliation, reporting and thelike.

It should be noted that the transfer of information in accordance withvarious embodiments may be done in a format recognizable by a merchantsystem or account issuer. In that regard, by way of example, theinformation may be transmitted from an RFID device to an RFID reader, orfrom the RFID reader to the merchant system in magnetic stripe ormulti-track magnetic stripe format.

Because of the proliferation of devices using magnetic stripe format,the standards for coding information in magnetic stripe format werestandardized by the International Organization for Standardization inISO/IEC 7811-n (characteristics for identification cards) which areincorporated herein by reference. The ISO/IEC 7811 standards specify theconditions for conformance, physical characteristics for the card(warpage and surface distortions) and the magnetic stripe area(location, height and surface profile, roughness, adhesion, wear andresistance to chemicals), the signal amplitude performancecharacteristics of the magnetic stripe, the encoding specificationincluding technique (MFM), angle of recording, bit density, fluxtransition spacing variation and signal amplitude, the data structureincluding track format, use of error correction techniques, user datacapacity for ID-1, ID-2 and ID-3 size cards, and decoding techniques,and the location of encoded tracks.

Typically, magnetic stripe information is formatted in three tracks.Certain industry information must be maintained on certain portions ofthe tracks, while other portions of the tracks may have open datafields. The contents of each track and the formatting of the informationprovided to each track is controlled by the ISO/IEC 7811 standard. Forexample, the information must typically be encoded in binary. Track 1 isusually encoded with user information (i.e., name) in alphanumericformat. Track 2 is typically comprised of discretionary andnondiscretionary data fields. In one example, the nondiscretionary fieldmay comprise 19 characters and the discretionary field may comprise 13characters. Track 3 is typically reserved for financial transactions andincludes enciphered versions of the user's personal identificationnumber, country code, current units amount authorized per cycle,subsidiary accounts, and restrictions.

As such, where information is provided in accordance with variousembodiments, it may be provided in magnetic stripe track format. Forexample, the counter values, authentication tags and encryptedidentifiers may be forwarded encoded in all or a portion of a datastream representing data encoded in, for example, track 2 or track 3formats.

Persons skilled in the relevant arts will understand the breadth of theterms used herein and that the exemplary descriptions provided are notintended to be limiting of the generally understood meanings attributedto the foregoing terms.

It is noted that references in the specification to “one embodiment”,“an embodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicate that theembodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include theparticular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrasesare not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic is described inconnection with various embodiments, it would be within the knowledge ofone skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, orcharacteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or notexplicitly described.

In various embodiments and with references to FIG. 1, a flow diagramillustrates operation of system 2100. A transaction account provider(TAP) (such as American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.,of New York, N.Y.) operates a registered card platform (RCP) 130 toimplement a reward or incentive program (sometimes referred to herein aregistered card program), which does not require paper coupons forfulfillment of merchant offers to account holders. RCP 130 provides thecapability to match merchant (SE or “service establishment”) offers andaccount holder (CM) customer information with card transactions for anaccount holder customer's purchases or returns at a merchantparticipating in the registered card program. As a result of suchmatching capability, RCP 130 allows TAP to fulfill a merchant's discountoffer applicable to account holder customer's purchase by providing arebate credit in accordance with the discount offer on the accountholder customer's transaction account statement. In various embodiments,RCP 130 includes or is accessible by a plurality of applicationprogramming interfaces (APIs) that enable a merchant, marketing partner,or other entity to define custom applications that interface with RCP130 in order to define offers, rewards, offer eligibility, etc.Embodiment of such APIs will be disclosed below. If a return is made ona purchase for which a rebate credit was previously provided, RCP 130also allows the TAP to debit the account holder customer the amount ofthe rebate credit and credit the same back to the merchant.

TAP may collaborate with a loyalty program provider to produce thereward or incentive program. While, as used herein, “loyalty programprovider” (LPP) refers to an external, third-party provider of marketingpackages that may be provided to CMs in accordance with variousembodiments, TAP may internally administer loyalty programs, such asrestaurant or travel marketing program. Therefore, to distinguish fromprograms provided by an LPP, TAPs internal loyalty programs will bereferred to herein as a “TAP marketing program” or simply a “TAPprogram.” In the figures, the service mark “TailorMade” is used to referto an example loyalty program offered by an LPP. Accordingly, althoughembodiments will be described herein in the environment of suchcollaboration between a TAP and an LPP, one of skill in the pertinentart(s) will recognize that a registered card program can be implementedwith or without a loyalty program provider or other types of providerswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 1, in step 1, a merchant 102 enrolls and submits adiscount offer to a loyalty program or other marketing program. Theseoffers are compiled in an offer database 132. In step 2, an accountholder customer (CM) 104 registers their transaction account managed byTAP, such that CM's account is “registered” to the registered cardprogram, thereby permitting the registered CM to receive coupon-lessdiscounts in the form of rebate credits (via CM's account statement).Information relating to CM's now registered card is compiled in enrolleedatabase 134. When CM shops and makes purchases (or returns) at amerchant using their financial transaction card, TAP will receive arecord of charge (ROC) for the transaction, which may be stored in acard transaction database 136. The ROC may be any information that canbe used to identify a card transaction. In step 3, matching is performedby RCP 130. In the case of a CM purchase, the CM's statement is creditedand the merchant's account is debited in accordance with the merchant'soffer, as illustrated in step 140. Further description of providing acredit to the CM and a debit to the merchant in step 140 is describedbelow with reference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 2 provides another high level flow diagram illustrating the stepsof solicitation 110 and enrollment 120 relative to transaction matching130 (performed by the registered card platform), in accordance withvarious embodiments. Solicitation 110 of a CM may include a targetedinvitation, such as by e-mail, from loyalty program provider(s) or TAP,or by simply making available to a CM a link on TAP's website promptingthe CM to enroll in TAP's registered card program. During enrollment120, the CM opts to register their card information to enable RCP 130 toperform future matching of transactions. Box 122 sets forth exemplaryfields of information stored by TAP for each enrolled CM. CM informationis stored in database 134 (represented here as an arrow 134), and theinformation is provided to a matching transaction processor 138 of RCP130. Matching processor 138 is shown and described in the exampleembodiments presented using the term “registered card engine” (RCE). Asshown, in FIG. 2, RCE 138 is provided with merchant transactioninformation from participating merchants (i.e., a daily, “business asusual” (BAU) transaction file). This transaction information may bestored in transaction database 136 (shown here as an arrow 136). RCE 138also receives participating merchant offers 132 (shown in FIG. 1) andmatches them with transactions 136 made by registered CMs (i.e., viainformation from enrollee database 134). Matched transactions areprovided in an output file 142.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary output file and credit and debitstatement for the CM and the merchant, in accordance with step 140 ofFIG. 1. Output file 142 from RCE 138 (as shown in FIG. 2) includes anitemization of a discount amount (i.e., incentive payment) to CM for apurchase made (i.e., ROC) at a participating merchant in which adiscount offer was applicable, in this embodiment, upon enrollment inthe registered card program, the registered accounts of the CM receive aregistration identification (i.e., “registered number”), which is alsoincluded in output file 142. In this embodiment, output file 142includes marketing programs administered by TAP and marketing programsadministered by a loyalty program provider. One of skill in thepertinent art(s) will recognize that output file 142 may be configuredin any number of ways and include less or more information representedin FIG. 3. For example, a separate output file may be provided for eachLPP or TAP program, and for each loyalty program offered by the sameLPP. Further, the transaction and discount information reflected thereinmay be provided collectively or separately for downstream processing ofa CM credit statement 144 and a merchant debit statement 146.

As shown in FIG. 3, output file 142 is processed by TAP to provide lineitem rebate credits on CM statement 144 for each purchase subject to adiscount offer available pursuant to a marketing program. For example,CM statement 144 includes a TailorMade rebate credit of $71, for anoriginal charge amount of $355 at participating merchant, Acme Clothing.Similarly, a credit of $37 under TAP's restaurant marketing program isprovided for an original charge amount of $370 at participatingmerchant, Acme Food. Merchant debit statement 146 includes line itemdebits in accordance with CM's rebate credits also as line items foreach marketing program. The debit for the merchant may be equal orunequal to the rebate credit to CM. For example, for Acme Clothing, themerchant debit of $71 is equal to CM credit of $71, whereas the debitfor Acme Food is $74, corresponding to the sum of the rebate credit toCM and a commission or service fee of 10% of the original charge amountimposed by TAP for performing the services described herein. Althoughnot shown here, a similar commission may be imposed by LPP and/or TAP onAcme Clothing's account and incorporated as part of a line item debit onits statement. Alternatively, such commission may be a separate lineitem from the line item for the merchant's debit for CM's rebate credit.

FIG. 4 is a detailed high level block diagram of the process of FIG. 1,showing processes for registration of a CM, calculation of a rebatecredit to the CM (or a negative discount amount in case, of a return),and downstream settlement with the CM and the merchant relating to therebate credit (or negative discount amount), in accordance with variousembodiments. The CM registers with TAP to receive coupon-less discountsfor purchases drawn on their transaction card/account. Generally, theregistration process begins with solicitation 110 of the CM, followed byenrollment 120 of one or more transaction cards held by the CM.Description of exemplary embodiments of process for solicitation 110 andenrollment 120 will be provided further below. In order to enroll, eachtransaction card and corresponding customer information undergoes avalidation process 410 to determine whether the CM's card is eligiblefor participation in TAP's registered card program. This registered cardprogram may be made available to not only CMs holding transaction cardsissued by TAP, but also to CMs holding cards issued by third partytransaction account providers in a brand network. Third partytransaction account providers are referred to herein collectively asGlobal Network Services (GNS). For example, “American Express” brandedcards are available from both American Express Travel Related ServicesCompany, Inc (referred to herein as proprietary cards, or “Prop cards”)as well as from other issuers (referred to herein as “GNS cards”), suchas Citibank, N.A. of New York, N.Y. Accordingly, validation process 410may include validation of proprietary cards and GNS cards. Forproprietary cards, customer information is validated by TAP's cardauthorization system (CAS) 412, and for GNS cards, CM information isvalidated by GNS's card authorization system 414.

The CM may be provided the option to enroll more than one card and linkeach second and additional card to a primary enrolled card, which isillustrated in FIG. 4 as linking 416. Linking 416 provides thecapability to assign a single registration identification to the CM andprovides the CM the flexibility to make a purchase on any of the linkedcards, with discount payments appearing on the CM's statement for theprimary card. The linked cards may be all Prop cards, all GNS cards, ora mixture of Prop and GNS cards. Further, the linked cards assigned to asingle registration identification may be corporate cards, personalcards, or a mixture thereof. The registration process may also includethe capability of batch enrollment 420 of a plurality of cards of one ormore CMs in a single instance. Information relating to enrolled CMs isstored in enrollee database 134. Information relating to linking 416 ofa plurality of cards to the CM is also contained therein. Informationfrom the enrollee database 134 may then be provided to RCE 138, asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 2.

The CM or a non-cardmember may also be offered the option to enrollbased on an action taken by the CM or non-cardmember that is not anenrollment activity. For example, offers may be communicated by throughvarious channels that communicate offers to CMs and non-cardmembers.These offers may require that the CM or non-cardmember take anaffirmative action (e.g., an action through a social media website) tobe eligible for an offer. Once the CM has taken the affirmative action,solicitation 110 may provide enrollment information to the CM ornon-cardmember or automatically enroll a CM. Where the affirmativeaction is taken by a CM who is not enrolled with the RCE 138,solicitation 110 may offer the CM the option to enroll or mayautomatically enroll the CM and communicate the enrollment to the CMthrough a suitable channel (e.g., e-mail, text message, social mediamessage, and/or the like). Where a non-cardmember takes the affirmativeaction, solicitation 110 may present the non-cardmember with the optionof apply for a transaction account to take advantage of the offerassociated with the affirmative action. If the transaction account forthe non-cardmember is approved, the non-cardmember becomes a new CM andmay automatically be enrolled through enrollment 120 or may have tomanually enroll through enrollment 120. Once enrolled, the transactioncard may be used to take advantage of the offer associated with theaffirmative action.

In various embodiments illustrated in FIG. 4, information onparticipating merchants and their offers are divided into separatedatabases, i.e., an offer database 452 and a merchant database 454, andprovided to RCE 138. As described above, TAP may collaborate with aloyalty program provider (LPP) 460 to deliver loyalty incentives to theCM in the form of coupon-less discounts. Accordingly, offer database 452and merchant database 454 may be populated by TAP and/or LPP, withoffers and merchants associated with TAP's marketing programs and LPP'smarketing programs, respectively. TAP may screen merchants participatingin LPP's marketing programs prior to accepting and storing them inmerchant database 454. TAP's program administrator (not shown) mayupload merchants and offers to the respective databases along with otherinformation associating merchants and offers with one or more marketingprograms. In various embodiments, as discussed below, TAP's programadministrator may specify offers and programs, reward criteria,eligibility criteria, reporting options, tracking options, triggeredalerts, etc. via API's of RCP 130.

For marketing programs administered by TAP, RCE 138 may include its owncalculation of discount 432 for purchases made by registered CMs withmerchants participating in TAP's marketing program. Further, LPP 460 maybe responsible for calculation of discount 462 for purchases made atmerchants participating in marketing programs administered by LPP 460. Amerchant may be a participating merchant for a plurality of externallyadministered and/or internally administered marketing programs.Therefore, these offer and merchant databases may include a fieldidentifying each offer and merchant to one or more marketing programs,as further described below with reference to FIG. 5.

Another input to RCE 138 are merchant ROCs 436, which may be compiled asa daily transaction file and stored in transaction database 136 (shownin FIGS. 1 and 2). RCE 138 performs transaction matching of merchantROCs 436 with enrolled CM information from enrollee database 134 andparticipating merchant and offer information from respective databases454 and 452. Further detail regarding this matching will be describedbelow with reference to FIGS. 5 through 7. Matched transactions relatingto loyalty programs administered by loyalty program provider 460 areprovided as an output file 444 to LPP 460 for discount calculation 462,whereby LPP 460 returns an output file (represented here as arrow 442),which includes the discount amount, or rebate credit, similar to theincentive payment field in output file 142 described above withreference to FIG. 3. This process of discount calculation by LPP 460 andexchange of information thereof with RCE 138 is discussed below withreference to FIG. 8.

A problem to be overcome in implementing a loyalty incentive program asdescribed herein is how to deal with returns. For example, assume anaccount holder makes a purchase for $100 and receives a 10% discount(also called a rebate or incentive) on his or her account. If theaccount holder then returns the purchased goods to the merchant, it isdesirable to be able to ascertain whether the purchase involved anincentive so that a return credit can be made in the appropriate amount.This problem is solved by providing a mechanism for dealing withreturns. In various embodiments of FIG. 4, RCE 138 has the capability toprocess returns 456 on purchases for which a registered CM may have beenprovided a rebate credit pursuant to a marketing program. If a rebatecredit had been previously provided, then processing of returns 456includes providing a credit to the merchant for the earlier debitedamount of the rebate credit provided to the CM and providing acorresponding debit to the CM of the earlier rebate credit. Processingof returns is similar to the transaction processing of purchases and isdescribed in greater detail below with reference to FIGS. 15 and 16.Accordingly, output file 444 from RCE 438 may include returntransactions, whereby loyalty program provider 460 calculates a negativediscount, or a discount reversal amount, 464 for each eligible return.Eligible returns may be identified based on a stock keeping unit (SKU)associated with the purchase or based on the date of the purchase andthe amount of the purchase (i.e., “backtrack discounts”). Logicassociated with matching prior purchases with returns by means otherthan SKUs is described in further detail with reference to FIGS. 19 and20.

RCE 138 has the capability to convert the discount amount to anequivalent of membership reward points which may be redeemable inaccordance with membership rewards program. Typically, a membershiprewards program offers goods or travel packages in exchange formembership reward points. Moreover, the discount amount may be acombination of a monetary credit and an equivalent of reward points. Toimplement such conversions, as well as to support service feecalculation, etc. RCE 138 may include a configuration table 434.Configuration table 434 may include fields for each marketing programand corresponding information for converting the calculated discount(i.e., the rebate credit) between a monetary credit and/or anequivalence in membership rewards points (shown as “CM (%, $, Pts)”).Further, since a discount offer may be represented in units of monetaryamount off or percent off a purchase price, or in terms of membershiprewards points, then for internally calculated discounts 432, RCE usesconfiguration table 434 to match program, merchant, and conversion terms(shown as “SE (%, $)”) to convert the offer terms to the desired unitsfor discount calculation. Configuration table 434 may also have a fieldfor TAP's service fees for each program and participating merchants, andservice fees may be in units such percent of purchase or monetary amount(shown as “TAP (%, $)”). Further, since a merchant may be submitting thesame offer for more than one marketing program, configuration tableincludes a “priority” field that is used to identify repeated offers andensure that the CM receives only a single rebate credit on a purchasethat is eligible to receive a discount pursuant to multiple marketingprograms.

The calculated discount (or discount reversal, if relating to a return)is provided to TAP settlement systems 470 for transactions on Propregistered cards, or to GNS settlement systems 480 for transactions onGNS registered cards. An AR system of TAP settlement systems 470processes the discount amount and provides the rebate credit (as amonetary credit or an equivalence in reward points, or both) on CM'scredit statement. If the rebate credit includes membership rewardpoints, then information relating the rebate credit is also provided tomembership rewards 472 for appropriate record keeping for that CM. APsystems of TAP settlement systems 470 processes the merchant debit inaccordance with CM's rebate credit, as well as any service fee chargedby TAP for providing the services described herein. Further detailregarding processing of matched transactions via TAP settlement systemsis described below with reference to FIG. 16. GNS settlement systems 480include U.S. submissions 482, global clearing and settlement 484, andone or more issuers 486. Global clearing and settlement 484 may beconsidered a repository for RCE 138's matched transactions associatedwith GNS cards so as to permit each GNS issuer 486 to retrieve theirrespective GNS card transaction information, including information ofthe discount and any service fees charged by TAP. GNS issuers 486 maythen use this information to provide a rebate credit to CMs accountsmanaged by issuers 486 and to provide a debit to participating merchantsin a similar manner as described above with reference to FIG. 2. Furtherdetails regarding application of the registered card program to GNSregistered cards is described below with reference to FIGS. 17 and 18.

RCE 138 may further have the capability to provide TAP with reporting490, which may include a marketing analysis or monitoring of the successof various marketing programs and information relating to account holderparticipation therein. Reporting 490 thereby permits TAP to target CMsand deliver merchant offers that are desirable to its registered CMsand/or merchants.

Offer DB 452 may comprise a plurality of offers. In various embodiments,the offers may be predetermined offers and/or offers based on merchantcriteria. The offers may be configured to be delivered electronicallythrough reporting 490. The electronic delivery may include delivery viaemail, text messaging, instant messaging and/or social networkingdistribution (e.g., via Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Linked-in). Theelectronic delivery may be automatic or require a manual input.

In various embodiments, and with reference to FIGS. 5A-5K, system 500may be configured to associate offers with a CM based on publishingactions by the CM. Many channels (e.g., blog websites, social mediawebsite, and/or the like) available through the internet allow a CM topublish content that can be viewed by people or entities associated withthe CM. Channels may include, for example, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube,foursquare, Linkedin, Pintrest, Google Plus, Feedji, Chatter, Yammer,Cubetree, Socialtext, Jive, Neustar, Weightless, Blogger, and/or thelike. These channels are generally able to identify publications by aCM, through components of the system that support the channel. Forexample, data associated with a user's social media account may beindexed by the social media service. The particular data (e.g., abroadcast, message, or other suitable data) published by the userthrough the social media site can be particularly identified if the datacomprises a predetermined object (e.g., offer identifier, text, picture,symbol, keyword, graphic, sound, etc.).

Initially, the CM may have to associate a transaction account and abroadcast channel with the entity response for administering the rewardsprogram. The CM may navigate through a web browser to a offer programlanding page 501A. The CM may select one or more broadcast channels(e.g., social media channels) (Step 501). In response to the receivingthe broadcast channel selection, system 500 may request profile data forthe CM's broadcast channel account (Step 502). System 500 may beconfigured to display a webpage that allows a CM to input the profileinformation or may allow the CM to sign-in with a selected broadcastchannel user name and password. For example, system 500 may provide abroadcast channel login button 502A. System 500 may also require the CMto specifically authorize system 500, RCE 138, or a third party 503A(e.g., a partner, merchant, service provider, monitoring service, and/orthe like) to monitor, collect, evaluate or otherwise process the databroadcasted by the CM through the broadcast channel (Step 503). Invarious embodiments, system 500 may be configured with an applicationprovided through an authorization page 503A that installs on a device(e.g., a smart phone, laptop, tablet computer, and/or the like) tofacilitate monitoring of the CM broadcasts, CM profile information,transaction accounts associated with a CM and process or manage anyother suitable CM data.

The CM may then provide profile information for the channel associatedwith the CM's broadcast channel account (Step 504). In response toreceiving the profile information, system 500 may be configured torequest transaction account information (Step 504). The transactionaccount information may be provided through an account registrationwebpage 504A, or be automatically identified by system 500 based on thelogin information, where the login information sufficiently complieswith (e.g., is identical to) login information associated with one ormore transaction accounts. System 500 may further request the CM toaffirmatively sync the transaction account with the CM's broadcastchannel profile (e.g., by selecting a sync button 505A). System 500 maybe configured to verify that the transaction account is eligible to syncwith the broadcast channel profile and receive offer based on CMbroadcasts, based on card type, spending level, payment history,spending history, creditworthiness, enrollment in loyalty programs, orany other suitable factor (Step 505). For example, CM with standardaccounts may be eligible to receive offers, but CM with brandedtransaction accounts may not be eligible to receive offers based on CMbroadcasts.

Based on the sync and the verification that a card is eligible, system500 may acknowledge to the CM the association between the transactionaccount and the CM's broadcast channel profile (Step 506). System 500may also provide a confirmation webpage 506A, may electronicallycommunicate confirmation that a transaction account has been synced(e.g., via an e-mail, SMS, social media message, and/or the like), orany other suitable confirmation. In various embodiments, system 500 maybe configured to provide additional information to the CM during theregistration process. For example, system 500 may be configured with anoffer database that is searchable by the CM. This allows the CM toevaluate the various offers available, allowing the CM to determinewhether she would be interested in receiving the offers. System 500 mayalso brand various web pages based on the broadcast channel selected bythe user. For example, where system 500 allows a CM to associate anAmerican Express transaction account with the social media channel suchas Twitter, system 500 may be configured to co-brand one of more webpages during registration with American Express brands and Twitterbrands. This may be based on the CIA's selection of Twitter and/or theproviding American Express Transaction account information.

Any entity associated with, distributing and/or sponsoring the offer maycreate an offer indicator and offer details 511A (Step 511). Thereafter,the offer may be communicated to CMs and/or non-cardmembers through anysuitable communication channel 512A as discussed herein (Step 512). Inresponse to the offer being distributed and/or communicated from OfferDB 452, a CM may be requested to take action to accept, associate and/orload the offer to a transaction account, as discussed above. In variousembodiments, the CM or non-cardmember may be requested to broadcast anoffer indicator 513A or predefined message 513A to accept, associate,and/or load the offer. The CM or non-cardmember may use a broadcastservice 510 (e.g., Twitter, You Tube, Facebook, and/or the like) totransmit the predetermined message 513A. The loyalty program provider460, offering entity 452A and/or RCE 138 may be configured to monitor orreceive broadcast information from a broadcast monitoring module 520(Step 513).

The broadcast monitoring module may be configured to monitor allbroadcasts from a particular channel. The broadcast monitoring modulemay be operated by or reside with the broadcast channel (e.g., Twitter,Facebook, You Tube, Linkedin, Pintrest and/or the like) or an entityresponsible for administering the offer (e.g., loyalty program provider460, offering entity 452A and/or RCE 138). The channel may be a socialmedia channel such as, for example, Twitter, Facebook, You Tube,Linkedin, Pintrest and/or the like. In response the offer indicator 513Aor predetermined message 513A being identified through broadcastmonitoring module 520, the offer may be loaded to or associated with aCM transaction account (Step 514). System 500 may be configured totransmit a confirmation message 514A to the CM, in response to loadingthe offer to the CM's transaction account. The confirmation message 514Amay be transmitted through the channel of the original CM broadcast orthrough any other suitable communication channel.

In various embodiments, where the CM account is not synced with abroadcast channel, but the CM may still broadcast the offer identifierthrough a channel, such that the entity responsible for administeringthe offer invites the CM to associate a transaction account with thechannel (Step 507). For example, the entity responsible foradministering the offer may provide a message 514A to the CM. Themessage could be transmitted through the channel that the CM used tobroadcast the offer identifier or through any other suitablecommunication channel. Alternative communication channels may be usedwhere the profile from the broadcast channel used to broadcast the offeris associated with another communication channel a twitter account maybe associated with at least one of another social media account, amobile phone number or an e-mail address).

If the offer indicator or predetermined message is broadcast by anon-cardmember, the non-cardmember may be offered the opportunity toapply for a transaction account so that the non-cardmember can takeadvantage or the offer. Transaction data associated with the transactionaccount is monitored and compared with the parameter of the associatedoffer, so that the offer can be fulfilled when the conditions of theoffer are met (Step 515).

For example, using Twitter or any other suitable push based shortmessage service, a CM or non-cardmember may receive a communicationindicating that if the CM or non-cardmember broadcasts or tweets anoffer indicator, the CM or non-cardmember will be eligible to takeadvantage of an offer (e.g., a discount on a product, a credit ofloyalty points, an experience, and or the like). As noted above, anon-cardmember will need to apply for and be granted a transactionaccount in order to take advantage of the offer.

In operation, a user (e.g., a CM or non-cardmember) broadcasts or, inthe Twitter example, tweets a message comprising the offer indicator.The broadcast is received by the broadcast platform. Any broadcast thatcomprises the offer indicator is identified by the broadcast platform.This subset of broadcasts is transmitted to the entity responsible foradministering the offer. The subset of broadcasts may be transmitted inreal time, in batches, or at any suitable frequency. Once the broadcastsare provided to the entity responsible for providing instructions toload or associating offers to a transaction account, the broadcasts areanalyzed are parsed to identify specific offer identifiers. Based on theidentification of a specific offer identifier, the offer can be loadedon the transaction account associated with the source of the broadcast.Transaction data may be evaluated against offer loaded to a transactionaccount to provide the benefit of the offer to the transaction accountor a CM associated with the transaction account.

Offers may be loaded to a transaction account at any time. The offer maybe loaded to a transaction account after a qualifying purchase is made,but transaction data from a prior purchase may be evaluated against asubsequent offer. In this way, purchases that are authorized before anoffer identifier is broadcast by a CM may be applied to transaction datathat was authorized prior to the broadcast. For example, a CM may make apurchase at a first time and broadcast an offer identifier at a secondtime, where the first time is earlier than the second time. Thetransaction data associated with the purchase at the first time may beevaluated with the offer associated with the broadcast at the secondtime to provide the benefit associated with the offer based on thepurchase. The benefit will be provided as long as the transaction dataassociated with the purchase complies with the rules governing the offer(e.g., the timing of the offer, the spend level of the offer, thelocation of the purchase and/or the like). Similarly, a broadcastcomprising an offer identifier which causes an offer to load to atransaction account may occur at a first time and be evaluate againsttransaction data from a purchase at a second time, where the first timeis earlier than the second time.

The offer indicator may be a hashtag that comprises the “#” sign and asymbol or keyword, as is commonly used to characterize or categorize atweet. The offer indicator may be any other indicator that ispredetermined or dynamically determined to by the entity making ordistributing the offer. The offer indicator may comprise elements orsymbols that are associated with the entity funding or distributing theoffer (e.g., a branded offer indicator). For example, an offer sponsoredby a merchant and distributed by American Express may comprise elementsof the name of the merchant, such as, HD for Home Depot) and elements ofAmerican Express, such as, AMEX for American Express). In this example,the offer indicator may be #HDAMEX. It should be understood that theoffer indicator may also comprise and text, pictures, video, graphicalelements, symbols, sounds and/or the like. The offer indicator may alsocomprise any predetermined or dynamically determined elements or symbolsthat describe the offer or are arbitrary (e.g., a branded offerindicator).

Where the hashtag is used and the twitter account used to tweet thehashtag is public, the offering entity or the entity administering therewards program can identify user who have tweeted the offer indicatorby searching for particular hashtag among publicly available tweets.Tweets can also be linked to other social media such as Facebook,Linkedin, or any other publicly accessible website using the Twitterwidget. The tweets may be displayed within on a social media or publiclyaccessible website so that the offering entity or entity administeringthe offer can identify what CM or non-cardmembers are tweeting to takeadvantage of the offer.

The offering entity or the entity administering the rewards program mayalso follow a CM who associates a transaction account for Twitteroffers. In this case, the offering entity or entity administering therewards program will receive every tweet from the CM and will be able todetermine with one or more of the CM's tweets included the offerindicator. Once the offering entity or entity administering the offerhas identified a tweet that contains the offer indicator, the offer canbe loaded to the transaction account associated with the CM.

Rewards may be provided to CM that follow a merchant, manufacturer,distributor, a sponsoring entity and/or the like on Twitter. The rewardmay be a discount, recurring reward, a one-time reward or other suitablereward based on the “follow” action.

Rewards may also be provided to CMs that re-tweet tweets from amerchant, manufacturer, distributor, a sponsoring entity and/or thelike. For example, an amount of Delta Sky Miles could be added to a SkyMiles account holder who re-tweets a tweet from Delta Airlines. Therewards may be funded by a sponsoring entity, such as, Delta in theexample above. Smaller merchants may also arrange or sponsor a programto provide rewards with an entity administering a rewards program. Forexample, a local hardware store may sponsor a program that providesrewards points (e.g., American Express MR Rewards Points) for tweetsfrom customer that use the store.

In various embodiments, a CM may be presented with one or more offersbased upon her current location, and those same offers may be generatedor provided using the systems and methods incorporated by referenceherein. Using the systems and methods described herein.

A CM who has registered to receive offers from registered merchants maytherefore improve her ability to receive and review offers by permittingrewards system 608 to show her offers from merchants near her currentlocation. In this way, a CM is not restricted to registering for offersby way of a static or immobile computing device (e.g., a personalcomputer), nor is the CM forced to determine which offers she wishes tobe registered to receive while she is stationary and away from thephysical location of a registered merchant. Rather, a CM may receivedynamically updated offers based upon her (changing) location. Thus, aCM who resides in a city that is not home to a particular registeredmerchant may nevertheless receive offers from the particular registeredmerchant when she travels.

Referring now to FIG. 6, system 600 implements a method for providinglocation based offers to registered or participating transaction accountholders (i.e., “card members (CMs),” “registered participants” and/or“users”). System 600 may include a client 602, a network 604, an offerregistration system 606, a rewards system 608, and a travel system 620.System 600 may include a variety of other components, including, forexample, one or more mobile gateway servers (not shown) for securelyreceiving and transmitting data to and from the client 602, one or moreelectronic commerce website servers (not shown), and/or one or morepayment processor authorization gateway servers (not shown).

Client 602 may comprise any software and/or hardware suitably configuredfor sending and/or receiving data. Client 602 may comprise a mobilecommunication device, such as a smart phone (e.g., an iPhone,Blackberry, Droid device, and/or the like) and/or a personal digitalassistant (PDA). Client 602 may also include a personal computer such asa desktop or laptop computer, iPad, iMAC, MacBook, or generally any of awide array of personal computing products. Client 602 may furthercomprise a kiosk, a terminal, a point of sale (POS) device, atelevision, a digital sign or banner, or any other device capable ofsending and/or receiving data over a network. In various embodiments,client 602 may run Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, GoogleChrome, Apple Safari, or any other of the myriad software packagesavailable for browsing the internee. Client 602 may further comprise, atleast, a display, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), or a plasmascreen display.

Network 604 may comprise software and/or hardware suitably configured orconfigurable to facilitate the transmission and reception of data. Thus,network 604 may comprise any of a variety of wired and/or wirelessnetwork architectures, including, for example, an RP networkarchitecture such as a network associated with a wireless provider(e.g., a 3G or 4G network), a Wi-Fi network architecture (e.g., a homearea or local area network), a wired network architecture reliant uponone or more cables and/or trunk lines and/or optical fibre lines, and/orany combination thereof.

Offer registration system 606 may comprise software and/or hardwaresuitably configured or configurable to receive and/or process data.Thus, offer registration system 606 may comprise a rack mountable serverappliance running a suitable server operating system (e.g., IIS) andhaving database software (e.g., Oracle) installed thereon. Offerregistration system 606 may be configured or configurable to registerone or more CMs and/or one or more merchants who wish to participate ina rewards program. Thus, in various embodiments, offer registrationsystem 606 may comprise a database of CMs and merchants who haveregistered or enrolled to participate in a rewards program. In variousembodiments, any servers discussed herein may include applicationservers (e.g. WEB SPHERE, WEB LOGIC, MOSS). In various embodiments, theserver may include web servers (e.g. APACHE, IIS, GWS, SUN JAVA SYSTEMWEB SERVER).

Rewards system 608 may comprise any type of computer server configuredor configurable to host a database, in various embodiments, such aserver comprises a rack mountable server appliance running a suitableserver operating system (e.g., IIS) and having database software (e.g.,Oracle) installed thereon. In various embodiments, rewards system 608may be configured or configurable to match a CM's spending data to oneor more rewards or rewards offers. In various embodiments, rewardssystem 608 may collect or receive location data associated with one ormore CMs. For example, rewards system 608 may collect or receive GPScoordinates associated with a CM's client 602, a city and state or othernamed location associated with a client 602, and the like. Rewardssystem 608 may receive travel data associated with a CM's travelitinerary; this data may be provided by a travel system 620 (see below).Rewards system 608 may provide one or more rewards or rewards offers toa CM based upon, or in association with, the CM's location (as describedmore fully below).

Travel system 620 may comprise any type of computer server configured orconfigurable to host a database. In various embodiments, such a servercomprises a rack mountable server appliance running a suitable serveroperating system (e.g. IIS) and having database software (e.g., Oracle)installed thereon. In various embodiments, travel system 620 may collector receive location data associated with one or more CMs. For example,travel system 620 may collect or receive GPS coordinates associated witha CM's client 602, a city and state or other named location associatedwith a client 602, and the like. Further, travel system 620 may collector receive location data associated with a CPA's travel itinerary. Invarious embodiments, travel system 620 may comprise a database of CMswho have used their transaction accounts to purchase travel tickets.Travel system 620 may comprise a CM's travel itinerary. In variousembodiments, travel system 620 may comprise one or more of the systemsand/or perform one or more of the methods described in U.S. PublishedPatent Application No. 2003/0177045, entitled “System and Method forProcessing Trip Requests,” filed Jan. 17, 7003, which is herebyincorporated by reference.

Client 602 may be coupled to offer registration system 606 and/orrewards system 608 by way of network 604. Likewise, offer registrationsystem 606 may be coupled to rewards system 608 by way of network 604.Thus, client 602 may transmit and receive data to and from rewardssystem 608 through offer registration system 606; or client 602 maytransmit and receive data to and from rewards system 608 directly.Rewards system 608 may be further coupled to travel system 620 by way ofnetwork 604.

Referring now to FIGS. 7-9C, the process flows and sereenshots depictedare merely embodiments and are not intended to limit the scope of theinvention as described herein. For example, the steps recited in any ofthe method or process descriptions may be executed in any order and arenot limited to the order presented. It will be appreciated that thefollowing description makes appropriate references not only to the stepsand user interface elements depicted in FIGS. 7-9C, but also to thevarious system components as described above with reference to FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 7, a method 700 for providing location based offers toregistered CM's is described. A CM may receive, during the course of hertravels, one or more offers via her client 602 (e.g., her mobilecommunication device) based upon her current location, and for example,in accordance with the systems and methods described in U.S. PublishedPatent Application No. 2008/0021772 or U.S. patent application Ser. Nos.12/857,389, 12/857,424, all of which are incorporated by reference above(step 702). Thus, in an exemplary embodiment, a CM may receive an offerassociated with a merchant that is registered, like the CM, with theoffer registration system 606.

In various embodiments, and with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9A, a CM mayreceive a notification by way of her client 602 indicating that herlocation has been determined and that one or more offers are or may beavailable. A link 802 may be provided, which, if selected, may transferthe CM to a website or webpage 900 (e.g., a “landing page”) or othermobile interface that displays or is configured to display one or moreoffers (step 704). The landing page 900 may require that the CM log intoher transaction account (e.g., with a username and password) prior todisplaying her offers. However, in various embodiments (not shown), itmay not be necessary to select a link 802 to view offers; rather, offersmay be presented directly to a CM by way of client 602. Thus, forexample, client 602 might display a message like; “We see you havearrived in Phoenix. Receive 60% off your stay with the Airport HotelMarriott.” Thus, a CM may accept or further review an offer by selectingthe offer (e.g., clicking on the offer) or by selecting a “button”(e.g., a button associated with a mobile interface) to indicate herinterest.

In various embodiments, and with continuing attention to FIG. 9A, a CMhaving indicated her interest in reviewing and/or receiving one or moreoffers, and having been transferred to a landing page 900, may choose toreview her offers via link 902. A CM may also choose to review herpayment history via link 904, or she may choose to review her recentpurchase activity via link 906. A variety of other options mayadditionally appear. For instance, a user may choose to view and/or edither account information.

Where a CM selects an offers link 902 (or otherwise indicates that sheis interested in reviewing/receiving offers), the CM may be transferredto an offer page 900, as shown at FIG. 9B. An offer page 900 maycomprise a variety of offer categories. For example, an offer page maycomprise a travel offers category 902A, a shopping offers category 902B,a dining offers category 902C, an entertainment offers category 902D,and the like. A CM may search for one or more offers in the vicinity ofher physical location by entering her zip code in an interface 510 (step706 a). Rewards system 608 may populate offer page 900 with one or moreoffer categories for the user based upon her zip code (step 708). Forinstance, rewards system 608 may locate one or more travel offers 902A,one or more shopping offers 902B, one or more dining offers 902C, one ormore entertainment offers 902D, and the like, that are in the zip codeor within a physical range of the zip code entered by the CM (step 708a). Likewise, a CM may search for one or more travel offers 902A, one ormore shopping offers 902B, one or more dining, offers 902C, one or moreentertainment offers 902D, and the like, that are in the zip code orwithin a physical range of the zip code entered by the CM (step 708 b).The CM may select any of the offer categories 902A, 902B, 902C, and/or902D associated with the located offers to view offers related to thoseoffer categories and associated with merchants in the specified zip code(step 210).

In various embodiments, a CM may not be required to enter her zip codein order to receive one or more offers. Rather, the CM's client 602 mayupload the CM's UPS location/coordinates to rewards system 608 (step 706b). In various embodiments, the CM's client 602 may upload to rewardssystem 608 a location of the CM relative to one or more cellular basestations (step 706 b). In various embodiments, travel system 620 mayupload itinerary data associated with the CM to rewards system 608 (step706 b). Rewards system 608 may utilize the CM's GPSlocation/coordinates, the CM's location relative to one or more cellularbase stations, the CM's itinerary data, and/or any combination thereofto determine a location of the CM. In response to determining thelocation of the CM, rewards system 608 may populate offer page 900 withone or more offer categories (step 708). For instance, rewards system608 may locate one or more items (e.g., travel offers 902A, one or moreshopping offers 902B, one or more dining offers 902C, one or moreentertainment offers 902D, and the like), that are offered by merchantsin the vicinity of the CM or within a physical range of the CM'slocation. The CM may select any of the offer categories 902A, 902B,902C, and/or 902D associated with the located offers to view offersrelated to those offer categories (step 210).

Referring to FIG. 9C, a CM may be transferred to an offer category page900 in response to a selection by the CM of an offer category e.g., oneof the offer categories 902A, 902B, 902C, and/or 902D. In the exampledepicted at FIG. 9C, a CM has selected the travel offers category 902A.However, any of the offer categories 902B, 902C, and/or 902D may equallybe selected; and the webpage/interface details described below apply insimilar fashion (with appropriate modifications for each category type).

As FIG. 9C shows, an offer category (e.g., 902A, 902B, 902C, and/or902D) may include one or more offer classes. For example, a traveloffers category 902A may include one or more travel offer classes. Invarious embodiments depicted at FIG. 9C, a travel offer category 902Amay include a golf travel offer class 902A and a hotels travel offerclass 907. Notwithstanding the example depicted at FIG. 9C, a traveloffer category 902A may include a wide variety of travel offer classes.That is, a travel offer category 902A is by no means limited to a golftravel offer class 902A and a hotels travel offer class 907. In variousembodiments, a number of offers associated with a travel offer class maybe displayed adjacent to each travel offer class. For example, in FIG.9C, the golf travel offers class 902A contains three golf related offers903. Likewise, the hotels travel offers class 907 contains six hotelrelated offers 905.

A CM may select an offer class within an offer category based upon herinterests. Each offer class may comprise a variety of offers; and a CMmay select one or more offers based upon her interests (step 210). Thus,with continuing reference to FIG. 9C, and in an exemplary embodiment, aCM may select the golf travel offer class 902A. Selecting the golftravel offer class 902A may cause client 602 to display one or more ofthe three golf related offers 903. For example, a first golf relatedoffer 909 may comprise an offer for 70% off a first round of golf at afirst golf course. Likewise, a second golf related offer 911 maycomprise an offer for 15% off a golf weekend package at a second golfcourse; and a third golf related offer 913 may comprise an offer for 15%off a round of golf at a third golf course. Although the exemplaryembodiment shows three golf related offers 909,911, and 913, any numberof golf related offers are possible; and, of course, each travel offerclass 902A,907, etc. may comprise any number of travel class relatedoffers.

In response to a CM selecting an offer, client 602 may display offerdetails. For example, and with continuing attention to the example ofFIG. 9C, where a CM selects golf related offer 909 (20% off a round ofgolf at a third golf course), a detailed message 915 may be providedexplaining certain offer details. A CM may choose to receive an offer byway of a button or other interface item displayed by client 602. Forexample, in FIG. 9C, a CM may select a “get offer” button.

In response to selection of an offer (i.e., indication by a CM that anoffer is desired), and as further described in certain of the materialsherein incorporated by reference, offer registration system 606 and/orrewards system 608 may fulfill the offer for the CM (step 210). Invarious embodiments, offer registration system 606 and/or rewards system608 may provide a transaction account processor's AP (accounts payable)system with information on merchant debits and credits for processing.Offer registration system 606 and/or rewards system 608 may furtherprovide a transaction account processor's AR (accounts receivable)system with information on card member debits and credits forprocessing. A merchant's account is debited for a CM's rebated credit,may be further debited a service fee, and is credited a CM's discountreversal amount in the case of an eligible return. A CM's account (ormonthly statement) may show a credited amount in accordance with anyrebate credit and a debited amount, in accordance with any discountreversal arising from an eligible return.

The offers may be accessible by RCE 138. These offers may be based uponspecific parameters which define at least one of a reward, a merchantand/or class of merchants, characteristics of a targeted CM, apredetermined qualification threshold, and the like. RCE 138 may analyzethe parameters to identify intended recipients of the offers. RCE 138may also analyze the parameters to determine characteristics for a CMpopulation. This capability allows the merchant to quickly andinexpensively target the CM with customized marketing and/or offers.This capability also allows the merchant to provide an offer to targetedCMs before a target list is pulled.

In various embodiments, reporting 490 may be configured to deliveroffers to CMs with particular behaviors and/or patterns (e.g., spendingbehaviors, reward usage behaviors, etc). RCE 138 may be configured todefine a particular CM population based on merchant targeted marketingefforts, CM spending patterns, CM demographic data and/or the like. Forexample, RCE 138 may identify a CM population that spends apredetermined amount of money on electronics in a predetermined periodof time. Further, RCE 138 may identify a merchant who offers electronicsfor purchase, but does not capture significant spending from theidentified CM population. In other words, the CMs who spend apredetermined amount on electronics are not spending significant amountson electronics with the identified merchant. RCE 138 may analyze the CMspending to compare the total amount of spending on a particular classof items (e.g., electronics). RCE 138 may also analyze such CM spendingbased on merchants that receive the CM spend, to determine theproportions of spending at a particular merchant, class of merchants,and/or the like. Such information may be compared to a predeterminedthreshold spending amount or proportions of spending at particularmerchants and/or classes of merchants. The comparison allows, forexample, a merchant to target CMs that do not typically spendsignificant amounts with a particular merchant or class of merchant, butthe CMs buy the types of products and/or services offered by themerchant or class of merchants.

CM populations may be initially created based on, for example,historical data. The historical data accessible to a financialprocessor, such as spend level data, is leveraged using various dataclustering and/or data appending techniques. The CM populations may alsobe created based on, for example, current spending patterns. The currentspend patterns available to a financial processor (e.g., currentauthorized transactions, posted transactions, and the like) may beleveraged using various data clustering and/or data appendingtechniques. Associations may be established among entities (e.g. CMs),among merchants, and between entities and merchants. In variousembodiments, RCE 138 may receive passively collected spend level datafor a transaction of a plurality of CMs, aggregate the collected spendlevel data for a plurality of CMs, and cluster the CMs into subsets ofthe plurality of CMs, based on the aggregated spend level data.

The collection of the spend level data may be passive. For instance,passively collecting spend level data of a CM includes acquiring thespend level data in response to a transaction by a CM with a merchant.In various embodiments, the spend level data may be integral toinformation processed in a transaction for goods and/or services with amerchant. For instance, a survey and/or survey responses are not neededto capture spend level data, but such data may be used to supplement thedata discussed herein. Collecting the spend level data may includeacquiring the spend level data from a merchant. In various embodiments,passively collecting the spend level data of a CM includes collectingthe spend level data from a transaction database. In yet anotherembodiment, passively collecting the spend level data includesreconciling the spend level data, transferring the spend level data to ahost, organizing spend level data into a format, saving the spend leveldata to a memory, gathering the spend level data from the memory, and/orsaving the spend level data to a database. For instance, if a CMperforms a transaction (such as by using a transaction account), spendlevel data (such as transaction data and/or consumer account data)related to the transaction may be captured and stored in a memory,database, and/or multiple databases. Spend level data (such astransaction data and/or consumer account data) may be stored locallywith the merchant, remotely by the merchant and/or transmitted to aremote host (e.g., financial processor) for storing and processing.

In various embodiments, aggregating the collected spend level dataincludes combining a selectable range of collected spend level data. Theselectable range may be a period of time (e.g., time range) and/or froma particular geographic region. The period may be any suitable periodand/or periods such as a minute, an hour, a period of hours, one day,one week, one month, a period of days, a period of months, one year, ormore than one year. The periods may be consecutive or non-consecutive.In various embodiments, the selectable range may be a value, such asvalues of spend exceeding a pre-selected threshold. The selectable rangemay also include frequency, such as spend level data occurring at aparticular frequency.

In various embodiments, the spend level data may be segmented by agender of the entity (e.g., male or female), such that only datacollected from merchants in transactions with men are processed by RCE138. This data may be aggregated, clustered, assigned a weighedpercentile and analyzed in accordance with the previous descriptions.Using this exemplary embodiment of the system, preferences, attributes,and inferences of a selected demographic may be obtained. In variousembodiments, spend level data segmented geographically (e.g., zip code)or by other regions can reveal which regions are most compelling to amerchant and/or marketer.

Any demographic included within the characteristic data may be selectedfor pre-segmenting the spend level data. In various embodiments, thespend level data may be segmented by an attribute (e.g., homeownerdesignation), and data collected from merchants in transactions withentities that are homeowners may be processed by RCE 138. This data maybe aggregated, clustered, assigned a weighed percentile and analyzed inaccordance with the previous descriptions. From this procedure, aholistic picture of homeowners segmented into different clusters may becreated. More than one demographic or attribute may be selected and thespend level data may be pre-segmented any suitable number of times inany suitable order. Additionally, in various embodiments, a particulardemographic may be selected to be removed from the larger set of allavailable spend level data. For instance, the spend level data of veryhigh income entities may be selected for removal and data collected frommerchants in transactions with very high income entities may be excludedfrom processing by RCE 138. The remaining data may be aggregated,clustered, assigned a weighed percentile and analyzed in accordance withthe previous descriptions. Using this embodiment, outliers may beremoved from the results. Additional details regarding combining CMsinto populations are disclosed in, for example, U.S. application Ser.No. 12/690,669, entitled “System And Method For Clustering a PopulationUsing Spend level Data” and filed on Jan. 20, 2010, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

The CM populations may be established based on historical data or oncurrent spending patterns, as discussed above, and in variousembodiments are modified based on current spending habits. For example,spend level data may be actively captured and used to modify CMpopulations. As CM spending habits change, the groups are modified toprovide greater accuracy for delivering rewards, merchant offers and thelike. For example, a CM may be placed in a population of CMs whose spendlevel data suggests that they attend public entertainment events (e.g.movies, concerts, and the like). As time passes, the system may analyzea shift in the spend level data which suggests that the CM (possibly dueto a having a new baby) attends less public entertainment events andspends more for home entertainment items, such as for example, homeelectronics equipment. In response to the shift in spend level data, RCE138 may associate the CM with a new CM population which receives rewardsoffers for electronics. Further, RCE 138 may also remove a CM from aparticular CM population based on current spend level data, wherein theCM was originally placed in a CM population based on historical spendlevel data, but no longer exhibits spending behavior consistent with thehistorical spend level data.

In various embodiments, in response to the determination that the CMpopulation is spending on electronics, but not with a particularidentified merchant, reporting 490 may send the CM population a rewardoffer from the identified merchant. The rewards offer may be designed toencourage the CM population to buy electronics from the identifiedmerchant, with whom the CM population had not previously conductedsignificant business.

The terms of a rewards offer may define a trigger event, such as athreshold spending amount at a particular merchant or class ofmerchants, or for a class of items. The reward offer may be providedelectronically to the CM population based on a trigger event (e.g., inreal time). A trigger event may be any action identified by the merchantor the account issuer. The trigger event may be based on spend data,geographic region spend, CM population size, time of year, or any otherevent. The event may be identified by the merchant, CM and/or accountissuer. For example, the trigger event may be based on spend data. Inresponse to a CM population reaching a predetermined spend level on aclass of products (e.g. electronics), the rewards offer may be sent tothe CM population via e-mail. Similarly, the trigger event may be basedon a CM population size. In response to the CM population reaching apredetermined level, a rewards offer is sent to the CM population. Inanother example, the merchant and a product supplier or manufacturer maycreate a joint offer, which provides a reward offer if a CM buys aparticular item (e.g. a particular model laptop computer) or class ofitems (e.g. any Sony® television).

In various embodiments, a merchant may wish to market rewards offers toCM populations based on CMs spending at other merchants. For example, amerchant that sells home improvement items (e.g. Home Depot) may wish tomarket its products and services to a CM population that spends apredetermined amount on electronics. The merchant may formulate a set ofcriteria to develop a CM population based on spend data for electronicspurchases (e.g. televisions) and/or spend data at particular electronicsmerchants (e.g. Best Buy). Thereafter, rewards offers from the merchantare provided to the CM population in response to a trigger event.

In various embodiments, the identified merchant offer is provided inconjunction with an existing rewards program. For example, the CM may beeligible for a reward based on the CM's pre-existing participation in arewards program. The reward offer is provided in addition to theexisting reward. For example, a CM is provided with a credit based on aparticular transaction at a particular merchant. The transaction mayalso result in the CM becoming a member of a particular CM populationthat is provided with a rewards offer (e.g. an additional discount withthe identified merchant based on the loyal spending behavior). As such,the CM receives the pre-existing reward and the reward offer based onthe CM becoming a member of a CM population.

In various embodiments, a CM is automatically enrolled in a program toreceive e-mail rewards based on criteria determined by a merchant oraccount issuer. In various embodiments, a CM may be invited to join a CMpopulation that is eligible to receive rewards offers. The CM mayreceive a notification which indicates that the CM is eligible toreceive rewards offers. The notification may provide for an opt-outperiod during which the CM can request that the CM is not sent therewards offers based on the CM's inclusion in a CM population. Thenotification may also provide that the CM register to receive therewards offers by taking some affirmative action, such as for example,registering the CM's account via a webpage and/or contacting the accountissuer and requesting to be included in the CM population associatedwith the rewards offers.

RCE 138 may be configured to administer rewards associated with aprepaid transaction account. Such configuration may occur directly orvia API's that are included in RCP 130. The prepaid transaction accountmay comprise embedded rewards, including for example, credits to theprepaid transaction account, merchant specific rewards (e.g. merchantgift cards), discounts, and the like. The rewards may be customized by amerchant. The rewards may be offered in conjunction the pre-paidtransaction cards (e.g. American Express Gift Cards, Home Depot GiftCard). Offers may be customized by an individual merchant or a group ofmerchants. This ability to customize offers allows local and regionalmerchants to offer rewards to customers that were previously unavailablebecause of the cost and complexity of administering a rewards program.Further, providing rewards with a prepaid transaction account allowsthose who are not credit card users to participate in rewards programstraditionally reserved for credit card account holders.

In various embodiments, a prepaid transaction account has an embeddedreward which is configured by an offering merchant. For example, amerchant may configure a reward which provides a credit on purchases ofcertain products and/or services (e.g. dry cleaning services) at themerchant or within a group of cooperating merchants. The reward may alsobe based on transactions conducted in a geographic or other region. Invarious embodiments, the reward may be limited or restricted for use ina similar or other geographic region. The rewards may be offered througha prepaid account, such as a prepaid transaction card, available forpurchase through the offering merchant. The prepaid transaction accountmay be used with any merchant who accepts transaction accounts from theaccount issuer associated with the prepaid transaction card. Further,the prepaid transaction account may be configured with pre-determinedreward criteria from the offering merchant. For example, when seventypercent of the total value of the prepaid card is spent with theoffering merchant, a reward is issued. The reward may be issued in theform of a credit to the prepaid transaction account, or may be providedin some other fashion (e.g. another gift card from the offeringmerchant).

In various embodiments, participation in the rewards program associatedwith the prepaid transaction account may be automatic or may requireregistration. Registration may be provided by accessing a webpage andproviding identifying information. Registration may also be achieved bycontacting an account issuer and requesting that a particular prepaidtransaction account be associated with a rewards program.

In various embodiments, any prepaid transaction account associated withan account issuer may participate in any rewards program offered by theaccount issuer. The transaction account may be registered with theaccount issuer for a particular rewards program selected by a prepaidtransaction account owner. Where the activities associated with thetransaction account conform to the rules governing the rewards program,a reward is provided to the prepaid transaction account owner.

While many of the example discussed above disclose systems where amerchant sponsors an offer associated with a spend level at theparticular merchant, the system is also suitable configured to offerdiscounts at the product level. A product level discount facilitated bya financial institution, separate from a merchant, is capable of helpingmove specific inventory. The inventory may be targeted for the discountdue to a variety of factors, including approaching a limited shelf-lifeor making room for a replacement product. Furthermore, the discount maybe greater than average if a supplier is able to limit to a specificproduct and/or merchant. In various embodiments, a supplier and afinancial institution may partner to offer a discount for a product at afirst retailer but not offer that same discount at a second retailer.

In various embodiments and with reference to FIG. 10, a product leveldiscount may be managed (e.g., by a computer based system) during atransaction. The computer based system may be operated by a financialinstitution or a third party entity. The computer based system maydefine an offer to create a predefined offer 1001. Furthermore, thepredefined offer may be transmitted, by the computer based system, to acustomer 1002. In various embodiments, computer based system beconfigured to receive information about the transaction between thecustomer and a merchant. The computer based system may receive atransaction identifier associated with a transaction, where thetransaction identifier comprises a transaction value, a customer accountidentifier, a merchant identifier, and/or a product identifier. Theproduct identifier may be assessed 1004, by the computer based system,to determine whether the transaction qualifies for a rebate credit inaccordance with a predetermined offer. Furthermore, a value of a rebatecredit is determined based on the transaction information and/or thepredetermined offer. The rebate credit may be applied to a qualifiedtransaction 1005, or the transaction may proceed under business as usualstandards in a non-qualified transaction 1006.

In an exemplary embodiment, the computer based system for managing aproduct level discount comprises a network interface communicating witha memory. Where the memory communicates with a processor for managing aproduct level discount, and the processor, when executing a computerprogram, is configured to receive, by the processor, the transactionidentifier associated with a transaction, assess the product identifierto determine whether the transaction qualifies for the rebate credit inaccordance with the predetermined offer, and determine the value of therebate credit.

The predefined offer for the rebate credit can be established by variousparties. For example, the predefined offer may be established by atransaction account issuer, a loyalty account issuer, a financialinstitution, a supplier, or a vendor. Furthermore, the predefined offermay be established by agreement of more than one party. The predefinedoffer may identify a transaction associated with an everyday purchase asan eligible transaction. The predefined offer may be associated with aspecialty product or specific event.

The predefined offer may be sent to the user associated with thecustomer account identifier to incentivize completion of thetransaction. A user, or customer in this case, can receive thepredefined offer in a variety of ways. For example, the customer canreceive the predefined offer on a portable electronic device. In variousembodiments and with reference to FIG. 11, a user may enroll in adiscount program 1101 and provide such information like an account codeand a unique identifier. Furthermore, the user may download a mobileapplication to the portable electronic device 1102. The user could bedirectly contacted with the predefined offer by one or more of email, adirect mailing, a communication to a phone, such as a text message, orby referral to a website. Moreover, in various embodiments, the customeraccount identifier may include a unique identifier associated with theportable electronic device. The unique identifier associated with theportable electronic device may be used to match the transaction to thecustomer account identifier. The unique identifier may be, for example,a phone number associated with the portable electronic device. A userconducts a transaction at a merchant 1103, and then transactioninformation is transmitted to a financial institution or a third party1104. As previously described, the financial institution determineswhether the predefined offer is satisfied by the transaction 1105. If itis a qualified transaction, the rebate credit may be applied to theaccount code associated with the unique identifier 1106.

The determination of which people to receive the predefined offer can bebased at least in part on the transaction history of the user.Specifically, the qualification for the rebate credit may be based atleast in part on an aggregate transaction history of the user associatedwith the customer account identifier. Also, the qualification for therebate credit may be based at least in part on the product identifiercorresponding to at least one of a particular product or a vendor.

In various embodiments, a product level discount may be facilitated by apoint-of-sale (POS) terminal, during a transaction. The POS terminal mayreceive transaction information from at least one of a merchant and acustomer, generate a transaction identifier, wherein the transactionidentifier comprises a transaction value, a customer account identifier,a merchant identifier, and a product identifier. The POS terminaltransmits the transaction identifier to a computer based system formanaging a product level discount, where the computer based systemdetermines whether a transaction qualifies for a rebate credit inaccordance with a predefined offer based on at least the productidentifier. In an exemplary embodiment, a point-of-sale terminalcomprises a network interface communicating with a memory, the memorycommunicating with a processor for managing a product level discount,and the processor, when executing a computer program, is configured toreceive, at the POS terminal, transaction information from at least oneof a merchant and a customer, generate a transaction identifier, andtransmit the transaction identifier to a computer based system formanaging a product level discount, where the computer based systemdetermines whether a transaction qualifies for a rebate credit inaccordance with a discount offer based on the product identifier.

Furthermore, in various embodiments, the POS terminal provides thestatus of the transaction to the computer based system, where thecomputer based system applies the rebate credit to a customer accountassociated with the customer identifier after the completion of thetransaction. The status of the transaction may be completed, pending, orcancelled. Moreover, in various embodiments, the merchant may not beinformed of the application of the rebate credit to the customeraccount. In various embodiments, the rebate credit may be applied by theFOS terminal to the transaction, and a request made by the POS terminalfor authorization of the transaction after applying the rebate credit.

The transaction process involves two general aspects; authorization ofthe transaction and determination of a product discount qualification.The authorization of a transaction is a well known process and will notbe discussed in detail. The product discount qualification involvescommunicating the product identifier, such as a stock-keeping unit (SKU)code from a merchant to a computer based system, where the SKU-leveldata includes a routing indicator. The routing indicator may be used toseparate the merchant communication into at least two data blocks, wherethe SKU-level data block is transmitted to a SKU database. A SKU code isa product identifier that uniquely identifies a particular productmanufactured by a specific vendor. The product identifier may alsoinclude a transaction amount, a card member identifier, the SKU code, aSKU indicator, a merchant identifier, and/or country of transactionorigin.

The product identifier may be communicated to the computer based systemin multiple ways. In a first embodiment, the product identifier isreceived from a merchant where the transaction originated. The merchantmay send the information via a batch file after a period of time, or onan individual transaction basis using the internet or other electroniccommunication connection. In a second embodiment, the product identifieris received from a customer by way of a transaction receipt. Thecustomer may download a smartphone application capable of scanning thetransaction receipt (e.g., a barcode on the receipt or a photo of thereceipt) and transmit this information to the computer based system.

As previously mentioned, the product level discount management, invarious embodiments, may include determining whether the transactionqualifies for the rebate credit based on at least one of the customeraccount identifier and the merchant identifier. Furthermore, the productlevel discount management may also include verifying, by the computerbased system, that the transaction has been completed, and applying therebate credit to a customer account associated with the customeridentifier after completion of the transaction. The product identifiercould be a stock-keeping unit (SKU) code. The SKU code may be the basisfor qualifying for the rebate credit. Furthermore, a merchant associatedwith the merchant identifier, which is part of the transaction, does notneed to be informed of the application of the rebate credit to thecustomer account. From the viewpoint of a merchant, a product leveldiscount may be applied post-transaction and the merchant may have noknowledge of the applied discount, in various embodiments, the productlevel discount management may include applying the rebate credit to thetransaction at the point of sale, and determining authorization of thetransaction after the applying the rebate credit. In this respect, if acustomer has a transaction value limit, the transaction may beauthorized after application of the rebate credit but not without therebate credit.

The product level discount, in various embodiments, may includedetermining whether the transaction qualifies for the rebate creditbased on at least one of the customer account identifier and themerchant identifier. Furthermore, the product level discount may alsoinclude crediting, at the POS terminal, the rebate credit to thetransaction value and completing the transaction.

In various embodiments having the discount applied post-transaction,verification of several factors may occur before the appropriatediscount level is applied. In various embodiments, implementation of theproduct-level discount involves little effort on the part of a merchant.The merchant provides the transaction information, such as via apoint-of-sale terminal, where the transaction information includes thetransaction identifier as previously defined. The merchant can opt-in toparticipate in third-party product level discounts and have minimalrequirements to facilitate such a program. A software update to the POSterminal will often be the only change needed at the merchant. Thesoftware update allows the POS terminal to generate and communicate thetransaction identifier. A financial institution, or any third-partyestablishing the predefined offer, receives the transaction identifier.As stated herein, the transaction identifier includes a customer accountidentifier. The customer account identifier may be used to retrievecustomer information from a database, where the customer information maybe part of the discount qualification determination. Such customerinformation may include geographic location, account history, priorpurchase information (both product and merchant-based), account status,prior transaction values, loyalty account information, and the like.

In addition, the POS terminal may also transmit the transactionidentifier to a financial institution, where the financial institutionis separate from the computer based system. As illustrated in FIG. 12A,a merchant 1201 communicates an authorization request and transactioninformation 1211 to a POS terminal 1202. The POS terminal 1202 forms atransaction identifier and transmits the transaction identifier 1212 toa financial institution 1203. The financial institution 1203 receivestransaction identifier 1212 and separates a product identifier into aproduct database. A computer based system 1204 receives theauthorization request 1213 from POS terminal 1202. In variousembodiments and with reference to FIG. 12B, is similar to the priorembodiment, except the computer based system 1205 is the same as thefinancial institution. The financial institution 1205 is configured,upon receipt of the transaction identifier 1212, to separate a productidentifier from the transaction identifier. The financial institution1205 then authorizes the transaction and determines whether thepredefined offer is satisfied by the transaction. The financialinstitution matches the product information and/or the customerinformation with the merchant or manufacturer offers.

Furthermore, a SKU matching process comprises receiving SKU data fromthe merchant (POS terminal) and receiving the predefined offer, which isa compilation of the eligible record of charges. The SKU data and thepredefined offer are then compared and matching records extracted to aidin the qualification determination. If a discount qualification isdetermined, the qualifying transaction notice is communicated to aninternal discount process.

A product level discount management for use in a telecommunicationsnetwork may also interface with the embodiments herein. In particular,such a system includes a mobile communication device configured tocommunicate over a wireless telecommunication network, atelecommunication service provider configured to facilitate a connectionto the wireless telecommunication network, a rewards management system,a financial institution, and a communication network providingcommunication between the telecommunication service provider, therewards management system, and the financial institution. The rewardsmanagement system includes a loyalty program configured to trackactivities which generate loyalty benefits, store the loyalty benefits,and determine a monetary value associated with the loyalty benefits anda loyalty program middleware which facilitates communication of theloyalty program with a financial institution such that the loyaltybenefit can be used to satisfy obligations associated with a transactionaccount issued by the financial institution on the connection.

A product level discount management for a peer-to-peer transaction mayalso interface with the embodiments herein. In particular, such a systemincludes first and second personal communication devices configured toparticipate in a peer-to-peer transaction, a rewards management system,and a communication network providing two-way communication between oneof said personal communication devices and the rewards managementsystem. The rewards management system includes a loyalty programconfigured to track activities which generate loyalty benefits, storethe loyalty benefits, and determine a monetary value associated with theloyalty benefits and a loyalty program middleware which facilitatescommunication of the loyalty program with a financial institution suchthat the loyalty benefit can be used to satisfy obligations associatedwith a transaction account issued by the financial institution.

Cancellations 440 of registered accounts by enrolled CMs arecommunicated to loyalty program provider 460 as well as to enrollment120 so as to maintain enrollee database 134 with up-to-date enrolled CMinformation. Cancellations 440 may arise, for example, from a CMreporting a lost or stolen card or a CM requesting TAP to deregister oneor more of its registered cards from the registered card program. Invarious embodiments, enrollee database 134 may be provided with timelyand consistent updates to reflect lost and stolen cards. Cancellations440 may also include deregistration of a CM from one or more particularmarketing programs administered by TAP or LPP 460.

Further description will now be provided with respect to solicitation110 and enrollment 120. As noted above with reference to FIG. 2, CM maybe solicited to join an incentive program offered by TAP via an emailinvitation from LPP 460. In this instance, a CM may receive asolicitation email providing a link to a loyalty program's websitelanding page, whereby the CM may begin an enrollment process. Theenrollment may include, for example, the steps of agreeing to theincentive program's terms and conditions, setting up a username andpassword and selecting marketing preferences, etc. Moreover, such anincentive program website may be hosted by LPP 460 and branded by TAP.As such, the enrollment process may further include providing TAP withthe CM's email address, such as when the account holder clicks on thelink of the solicitation email to start the enrollment process. TAP mayuse CM's email address to validate the CM prior to enrollment 120 viavalidation process 410. Further, the incentive program's website mayprovide registered CMs with a customized home page where they may bepresented with personalized offers (such as those identified based ontheir selected marketing preferences), as well as being able to engagein online shopping of goods and services offered by merchantsparticipating in the particular marketing program(s) in which theaccount holder enrolls. If a CM receives an email solicitation but isalready enrolled in TAP's registered card program, then by clicking onthe link provided in the solicitation email, the already enrolled CM maybe prompted to log in to their customized homepage. As noted above, a CMmay be solicited indirectly simply by being provided with access to awebsite link to the enrollment webpage and/or TAP's enrollment webpagefor the registered card program. Further, enrollment in TAP's registeredcard program via a TAP-hosted website link may allow for enrollment inTAP's marketing programs as well as a marketing program offered incollaboration with one or more loyalty program providers.

Solicitation 110 may further include a pre-solicitation process prior tosending a solicitation email to a targeted CM. The pre-solicitationprocess may involve determining which CMs should be targeted and whichoffer clusters and particular marketing programs the CM may be eligibleto participate in pursuant to the registered card program. Accordingly,TAP may collaborate with LPP 460 to identify appropriate CMs for emailsolicitation based on TAP's data on a CNN spending preferences and theLPP's clusters of merchant offers. These identified, targeted CMs maythen reviewed so as to exclude solicitation of any targeted CMs havingopted out of receiving direct marketing materials from TAP or LPP 460.TAP then provides LPP 460 with a marketing list of targeted CMs andassociated identifying information (such as salutation, name, gender,and zip code). The marketing list may further be provided to LPP 460with a given effective period during which solicitation emails may besent, since the list should be updated periodically to exclude CMs fromthe list that have since opted out of receiving marketing materials.Upon receipt of the marketing list from TAP, loyalty program providersends out email invitations to the targeted CMs.

Enrollment 120 may provide an option to the CM to participate in theregistered card program as a preferred enrollee. For example, duringenrollment an account holder may choose to be eligible for “premium”offers in exchange for paying an enrollment fee. Alternatively, the CMmay wish to forego payment of any enrollment fee and be eligible for“everyday” offers. Preferred (i.e., premium) customers may also beeligible for everyday offers. TAP's registered card program maytherefore offer tiers of offer packages corresponding to the “premium”and “everyday” tiers of enrolled account holders. Accordingly, RCE 138,during transaction matching, may consider whether an enrolled CM isregistered as a premium account holder or an everyday account holder soas to identify CM purchases that qualify for a premium offer and/or aneveryday offer.

An embodiment, the TAP collaborates with loyalty program provider 460will now be described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 13through 16. FIG. 13 illustrates transaction-based data flow betweendatabases at TAP during transaction matching by RCE 138. As shown, CMenrollee database 134 may include such data as a CM's registrationidentification (RCnumber ID) for one or more registered transactioncards linked together in accordance with linking step 416, describedabove; a list of account numbers for these linked cards; indication ofwhether the CM is a premium account holder; and whether the CM and/ortheir registered transaction card(s) are active or canceled pursuant tocancellations 440 (shown in FIG. 4). A second enrollee database (i.e.,database identified as “LPPnumber 2”) and other additional enrolleedatabases may be provided for enrollees of each distinct loyalty programor program provider. Alternatively, a single enrollee database 134 maybe provided for all enrollees of the registered card program, withanother data field provided which identifies the one or more loyaltyprogram providers the CM is associated with. Likewise, separate merchantdatabase may be provided for each loyalty program or program provider,or a single database may be provided with a data field identifying themerchant with the program(s) or provider(s). Merchant database 454 mayinclude a merchant ID, its SE number, as well as whether the merchant isactively or inactively enrolled in the registered card program.

Merchant offer database 452 may include an offer ID, a correspondingmerchant ID, a start and end date for the particular offer, adescription, and whether the offer is a premium offer, as describedabove. Since TAP and LPP may each administer marketing programs, andsince there may be multiple loyalty program providers, merchant offerdatabase 452 may also include a field identifying each TAP or LPPmarketing program to which the offer belongs. FIG. 13 also showsexemplary data contained in output file 444 provided to the loyaltyprogram provider(s) for discount calculation (or discount reversalcalculation, in the case of return), as described above with referenceto FIG. 4. In this figure, “Tx” represents the term “transaction.” Asshown, output file 444 includes: transaction ID, transaction date,merchant ID and offer ID, account holder's registration identification(RCnumber), transaction amount, as well as whether the transaction typeis a credit (return) or a debit (purchase).

In this embodiment, output file 444 includes CM's RCnumber as asubstitute for the CM's actual transaction account number. Output file444 is provided to LPP for discount calculation, and the level ofsecurity associated with LPP's network may prohibit allowing LPP usingthe actual account number as a means to identify the transaction fordiscount calculation. However, it should be understood that forinternally calculated discounts 432 (described in FIG. 4) or in instancewhere secure networks exists with the loyalty program provider(s), thenoutput file may contain the particular transaction account numberassociated with the transaction. As such, the discount calculated by LPPmay be directly matched with the card number and may also be provided onthe statement for a secondary card, rather than appearing on thestatement of the primary card, which may occur when several linked cardsare associated with CM's registration identification (RCnumber).

FIGS. 6 and 7 show in greater detail the process of transaction matchingby RCE 138 when a registered CM shops at a participating merchant. FIG.16 shows in detail an embodiment of a process for calculation (via LPP)of CM discount credits and discount reversal debits and their subsequentprocessing so as to appear on CM and merchant statements. The processesof FIGS. 15 through 16 are shown to incorporate both CM purchases andtheir returns. Accordingly, the output file provided to LPP and an inputfile from LPP to TAP (as shown and later described in step 1614 in FIG.16), as well as creation of a file of merchant credit-debit and accountholder credit/debit (as shown in step 1622 of FIG. 16), are described toinclude information relating to both purchases and returns. It should beunderstood, however, that individual files at the noted steps may beprovided, one for processing of discounts for purchases and another forprocessing discount reversals for returns. Further description ofmethodologies for identifying whether a return is on a purchase forwhich a CM received a discount will be described with reference to FIGS.19 and 20.

FIG. 14 shows steps in a process from the point when the account holdermakes a purchase or return at a particular participating merchant towhen an output file is provided to an LPP for discount calculation (ordiscount reversal calculations). In step 1410, TAP receives daily ROCsfrom merchants via its financial capture system (FinCap). In step 1420,TAP creates a consolidated daily ROC file of all merchants associatedwith TAP. As part of the consolidation, TAP may monitor ROC submissionsfor return ROCs, i.e., ROCs having a negative amount for the transactionamount, and/or for which the transaction type is identified as a credit,whereby the transaction may be subject to additional processing todetermine whether a negative discount (i.e., discount reversal) is dueprior to including the transaction on the output file provided to theLPP for discount reversal calculation. In step 2240, TAP receives thelist of participating merchants and offers from LPP. Participatingmerchants and offers are stored in merchant database 454 and merchantoffer database 452, respectively. At step 1450, merchants are matched tooffers, and at step 1460, ROCs are extracted for only thoseparticipating merchants that have unexpired offers. Also extracted arecredit ROCs (i.e., ROCs for returns).

Once TAP identifies credit ROCs from participating merchants, TAP maycompare them to transaction debits stored in transaction database 136(see FIG. 16) over a given time period. (e.g., the last 60 days, or thelast 90 days) to determine whether there exists a debit ROC with thesame merchant as the credit ROC, for the same registered card. If found,TAP further checks to see if the previous transaction was eligible for arebate credit and the amount of the rebate credit that was provided tothe CM. If the previous transaction is eligible for a rebate credit,then a debit corresponding to the amount of the rebate credit in full(corresponding to full returns) or in part (corresponding to partialreturns) is charged to the account holder. These debits thereby adjustthe net return credit to equal the original purchase price less therebate credit. The merchant is reimbursed for the amount of the debitedrebate credit, and the merchant's reimbursement appears as a credit onthe merchant's account. The determination of the discount reversalamount (i.e., amount of the debited rebate credit) is based on the CM'srebated credit on the original purchase rather than the debit receivedby the merchant, since the merchant's previous debit for the CM's rebatecredit may include an associated service fee imposed by TAP and/or LPP.As noted above, in various embodiments, stock keeping units (SKU's) ofpurchased goods/services are used to match purchases with returns anddetermine the discount reversal amount. In various embodiments, certainassumptions are made in accordance with a return logic policy to do thematching. Exemplary return logic policy is described below withreference to FIGS. 19 and 20.

At step 1470, CM information in enrollee database 134 is used to matchregistered CMs with ROCs extracted in step 1460, and each matchedtransactions is provided with a transaction ID. In step 1480, outputfile 444 is created of transactions matched in step 1470. At step 1490,output file 444 is provided to loyalty program provider fordiscount/discount reversal calculation.

FIG. 15 shows in greater detail the matching processes of steps 1450 and1470 and the process of extraction step 1460 of FIG. 14, in accordanceto an embodiment. Step 1450, for the matching of merchants to offers,may include steps 1452, 1454, 1456 and 1458. In step 1452, the list ofmerchants from merchant database 454 is compared with the list of offersin merchant offer database 452. In step 1454, offers are checked to beeither premium or everyday offers. In step 1456, offers are selected forinclusion in a master file in step 1458 if the offers are currently ineffect as determined by the offer start and end dates, and in step 1458,a master file is created which includes the merchant SEnumber, the offerID, the offer end date, and the offer type (premium or everyday).Extraction step 1460 receives the ROC extraction file from step 1430(see FIG. 14) as well as the master file of step 1458. In thisembodiment, extraction step 1460 includes steps 1462, 1464, 1466 and1468. In step 1462, merchant SEnumbers are compared to the ROC extractfile of step 1460 and master file of step 1458, and in step 1454, ROCsfor merchants participating in TAP's registered card program areselected. Of the selected ROCs for participating merchants, the ROCs areextracted if (in step 1466) the transaction date is less than the offerend date reflected in the master file, or if (in step 1468) the ROC is acredit ROC. These extracted ROCs are an input to matching step 1470 thatincludes steps 1472, 1474, 1476 and 1478. In step 1472, CM account/cardnumbers from the extracted ROC file are matched with the registeredaccounts stored in enrollee database 134. In step 1474, those ROCscorresponding to the registered accounts of CMs are selected. If theregistered CM is a premium CM then at step 1476, all ROCs are extractedfor the CM; otherwise, at step 1478 only ROCs that apply to everydayoffers are extracted for the CM. These extracted ROCs are provided tostep 1480 of FIG. 14 for creation of output file 444.

As shown in FIG. 16, the LPP receives output file 444 from TAP at step1610. In step 1612, the LPP calculates the discount or negative discount(i.e., discount reversal) amount for each purchase and returntransaction, respectively. In step 1614, a file including a discount ordiscount reversal calculation (such as file 442 provided to RCE 138,described above in FIG. 4) is provided to TAP. TAP uses this file atstep 1620 to update its transaction database with discount amounts ornegative discount amounts, whereby the original ROC transaction ismatched with these discounts or negative discounts. At step 1622, TAPcreates a file of CM credits and corresponding merchant debits fordiscounts associated with a purchase. Further, TAP may include CM debitsand merchant credits for negative discounts associated with returns. Instep 1624, TAP's SPP (shopping portal processor) platform is used tocreate a FinCap file which is provided to FinCap, and in step 1626,FinCap processes CM discounts (i.e., rebate credits) and CM discountreversals, in particular, as described above in FIG. 4, RCE 138 providesTAP's AP (accounts payable) system with information on merchant debitsand credits for processing at step 1628 and provides TAP's AR (accountsreceivable) system with information on account holder debits and creditsfor processing at step 1630. Pursuant to step 1628, a merchant's accountis debited for the CM's rebated credit, may be further debited a servicefee, and is credited a CM's discount reversal amount in the case of aneligible return. Pursuant to step 840, a CM's account (or monthlystatement) shall show a credited amount in accordance with any rebatecredit and a debited amount in accordance with any discount reversalarising from an eligible return.

Methodologies unique to processing of account holder returns by means ofa return logic policy in accordance with various embodiments are nowdescribed with reference to FIGS. 19 and 20. In these figures “TM tx”represents CM transactions which were eligible for a rebate credit inaccordance with the TailorMade^(SM) registered card program describedherein. FIG. 19 provides examples of actions taken in response toreturns. For example, in line 1 of FIG. 19, a $1,000 return is made onSep. 1, 2006. In response to this return, TAP will take no action withrespect to debiting any rebate credit, because there were notransactions made in the prior 60 days to correspond to the $1,000return. In line 2, for the same return, it is determined that there wasa $1,000 purchase within the prior 60 days along with a $100 statementcredit. Therefore, it is assumed that the $100 statement credit was arebate credit that must be debited. In line 3, a $400 return is made. Inthis case, a proportional $40 debit is made to correspond to the portionof the rebate credit on the $400 purchase that was returned additionalexamples and assumptions/rationales are provided in FIG. 19.

FIG. 20 provides additional examples of return policy logic in which aCM may be debited for identified rebate credit(s) on TM(TailorMade^(SM)) transactions. As shown in FIG. 20, if the CM isdebited for identified rebate credit(s), and if the CM disputes thecredit and claims that the return is part of a non-TM transaction (i.e.,a transaction in which the CM did not receive a rebate credit), then therebate credit is written off of CM's account. For example, in the line 1of FIG. 20, a return is made for $1000, and it assumed that the returnis associated the first exact transaction in the past 60 days for thatis the same amount as the return. In this example, transaction “6” isthe first transaction of $1000, and the return is associated withtransaction “6.” Since transaction “6” was discounted 10%, whereby theCM received a rebate credit of $100, then the CM is debited the $100. Ifthe CM disputes the debit, such as by claiming that the return is infact part of transaction “4,” then the debit is written off, sincetransaction “4” not subject to a discount.

If in line 1 there is no exact matched transaction identified with thereturn, then, in line 2, the first transaction in the past 60 days whichis greater than the amount of the return is identified with the return.As shown in line 2, transaction “6” for $5000 is the first matchedtransaction having an amount greater than the return. Since transaction“6” was not discounted, then no action is taken with regard to debitingCM. If CM claims that the return is part of transaction “5” and “2”,then a debit from the CM's account is made in the amount of the rebatecredits (15% and 15%) for those transactions. If there is no transactionmatched in lines 1 or 2, then in line 3, if the sum of the return isequal or smaller than the sum of all transactions in the past 60 days,then it is assumed that the return refers to TM transactions up to$1000, and a debit to CM's account is provided in accordance with thediscounts on TM transactions 2 and 5.

FIGS. 17 and 18 show high level flow diagrams of a process fortransaction matching (via RCE 138) of registered GNS cards. As shown inFIG. 17, transactions deserving of discounts or discount reversals aswell as any service fees are provided to U.S. Submissions 482 which isplaced at global clearing and settlement 484, which is a repository forcollection by GNS issuers 486 for processing of credits and debits onGNS cards held by registered CMs (referred to as “GNS CNN”). Globalclearing and settlement 484 is also a repository for daily ROC data thatis submitted to RCE 138 for transaction matching. Although not shownhere, GNS issuers 486 provide TAP with information on GNS accounts heldby registered CMs to permit transaction matching, and also to permitenrollee database 134 to be updated according to cancellations 440 (asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 4). In various embodiments shownin FIG. 17, card authorization system 414 may involve a one dollarauthorization by which the CM's card is validated at enrollment. Asshown in FIGS. 17 and 18, U.S. submissions 482 receives discount,returns, and service fee information from RCE 138 that is used by GNSissuers 486 to settle with merchants and GNS CMs. U.S. submissions 482passes a two line message to GNS issuers 486, which appears on therespective issuer's credit statement. A similar two line message may beprovided on GNS CM's account statement, thereby providing transparencyof the settlement of transactions made pursuant to TAP's registered cardprogram to both GNS CMs and CMs holding cards issued by TAP, such as inthe manner described above with reference to FIG. 2.

The present system or any part(s) or function(s) thereof may beimplemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof and may beimplemented in one or more computer systems or other processing systems.However, the manipulations performed by embodiments were often referredto in terms, such as matching or selecting, which are commonlyassociated with mental operations performed by a human operator. No suchcapability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases,in any of the operations described herein. Rather, the operations may bemachine operations. Useful machines for performing the variousembodiments include general purpose digital computers or similardevices.

In fact, in various embodiments, the embodiments are directed toward oneor more computer systems capable of carrying out the functionalitydescribed herein. An example of a computer system 2100 is shown in FIG.21.

The computer system 2100 includes one or more processors, such asprocessor 2104. The processor 2104 is connected to a communicationinfrastructure 2106 (e.g., a communications bus, cross-over bar, ornetwork). Various software embodiments are described terms of thisexemplary computer system. After reading this description, it willbecome apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art(s) how toimplement various embodiments using other computer systems and/orarchitectures.

Computer system 2100 can include a display interface 2102 that forwardsgraphics, text, and other data from the communication infrastructure2106 (or from a frame buffer not shown) for display on the display unit1330.

Computer system 2100 also includes a main memory 1308, such as forexample random access memory (RAM), and may also include a secondarymemory 2110. The secondary memory 2110 may include, for example, a harddisk drive 2112 and/or a removable storage drive 2114, representing afloppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, etc.The removable storage drive 2114 reads from and/or writes to a removablestorage unit 2118 in a well known manner. Removable storage unit 2118represents a floppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, etc. which isread by and written to by removable storage drive 2114. As will beappreciated, the removable storage unit 2118 includes a computer usablestorage medium having stored therein computer software and/or data.

In alternative embodiments, secondary memory 2110 may include othersimilar devices for allowing computer programs or other instructions tobe loaded into computer system 2100. Such devices may include, forexample, a removable storage unit 2118 and an interface 2120. Examplesof such may include a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such asthat found in video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as anerasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), or programmable readonly memory (PROM)) and associated socket, and other removable storageunits 2118 and interfaces 2120, which allow software and data to betransferred from the removable storage unit 2118 to computer system2100.

Computer system 2100 may also include a communications interface 2124.Communications interface 2124 allows software and data to be transferredbetween computer system 2100 and external devices. Examples ofcommunications interface 2124 may include a modem, a network interface(such as an Ethernet card), a communications port, a Personal ComputerMemory Card International Association (PCMCIA) slot and card, etc.Software and data transferred via communications interface 2124 are inthe form of signals 2128 which may be electronic, electromagnetic,optical or other signals capable of being received by communicationsinterface 2124. These signals 2128 are provided to communicationsinterface 2124 via a communications path (e.g., channel) 2126. Thischannel 2126 carries signals 2128 and may be implemented using wire orcable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellular link, a radiofrequency (RF) link and other communications channels.

In this document, the terms “computer program medium” and “computerusable medium” are used to generally refer to media such as removablestorage drive 2114 and a hard disk installed in hard disk drive 2112.These computer program products provide software to computer system2100.

Computer programs (also referred to as computer control logic) arestored in main memory 1308 and/or secondary memory 2110. Computerprograms may also be received via communications interface 2124. Suchcomputer programs, when executed, enable the computer system 2100 toperform the features as discussed herein. In particular, the computerprograms, when executed, enable the processor 2104 to perform thefeatures of various embodiments. Accordingly, such computer programsrepresent controllers of the computer system 2100.

In various embodiments, software may be stored in a computer programproduct and loaded into computer system 2100 using removable storagedrive 2114, hard drive 2112 or communications interface 2124. Thecontrol logic (software), when executed by the processor 2104, causesthe processor 2104 to perform the functions of various embodiments asdescribed herein.

In various embodiments, hardware components such as application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardware statemachine so as to perform the functions described herein will be apparentto persons skilled in the relevant art(s).

One skilled in the art will appreciate that system 2100 may employ anynumber of databases in any number of configurations. Further, anydatabases discussed herein may be any type of database, such asrelational, hierarchical, graphical, object-oriented, and/or otherdatabase configurations. Common database products that may be used toimplement the databases include DB2 by IBM (White Plains, N.Y.), variousdatabase products available from Oracle Corporation (Redwood Shores,Calif.), Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server by MicrosoftCorporation (Redmond, Wash.), or any other suitable database product.Moreover, the databases may be organized in any suitable manner, forexample, as data tables or lookup tables. Each record may be a singlefile, a series of files, a linked series of data fields or any otherdata structure. Association of certain data may be accomplished throughany desired data association technique such as those known or practicedin the art. For example, the association may be accomplished eithermanually or automatically. Automatic association techniques may include,for example, a database search, a database merge, GREP, AGREP, SQL,using a key field in the tables to speed searches, sequential searchesthrough all the tables and files, sorting records in the file accordingto a known order to simplify lookup, and/or the like. The associationstep may be accomplished by a database merge function, for example,using a “key field” in pre-selected databases or data sectors.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be linked on the basisof the type of data in the key field. The data corresponding to the keyfield in each of the linked data tables is preferably the same or of thesame type. However, data tables having similar, though not identical,data in the key fields may also be linked by using AGREP, for example.In accordance with one aspect of system 2100, any suitable data storagetechnique may be utilized to store data without a standard format. Datasets may be stored using any suitable technique, including, for example,storing individual files using an ISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure;implementing a domain whereby a dedicated file is selected that exposesone or more elementary files containing one or more data sets; usingdata sets stored in individual files using a hierarchical filing system;data sets stored as records in a single file (including compression, SQLaccessible, hashed via one or more keys, numeric, alphabetical by firsttuple, etc.); Binary Large Object (BLOB); stored as ungrouped dataelements encoded using ISO/IECC 7816-6 data elements; stored asungrouped data elements encoded using ISO/IEC Abstract Syntax Notation(ASN.1) as in ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825; and/or other proprietary techniquesthat may include fractal compression methods, image compression methods,etc.

In various embodiments, the ability to store a wide variety ofinformation in different formats is facilitated by storing theinformation as a BLOB. Thus, any binary information can be stored in astorage space associated with a data set. As discussed above, the binaryinformation may be stored on the financial transaction instrument orexternal to but affiliated with the financial transaction instrument.The BLOB method may store data sets as ungrouped data elements formattedas a block of binary via a fixed memory offset using either fixedstorage allocation, circular queue techniques, or best practices withrespect to memory management (e.g., paged memory, least recently used,etc.). By using BLOB methods, the ability to store various data setsthat have different formats facilitates the storage of data associatedwith system 2100 by multiple and unrelated owners of the data sets. Forexample, a first data set which may be stored may be provided by a firstparty, a second data set which may be stored may be provided by anunrelated second party, and yet a third data set which may be stored,may be provided by an third party unrelated to the first and secondparty. Each of these three exemplary data sets may contain differentinformation that is stored using different data storage formats and/ortechniques. Further, each data set may contain subsets of data that alsomay be distinct from other subsets.

As stated above, in various embodiments of system 2100, the data can bestored without regard to a common format. However, in one exemplaryembodiment, the data set (e.g., BLOB) may be annotated in a standardmanner when provided for manipulating the data onto the financialtransaction instrument. The annotation may comprise a short header,trailer, or other appropriate indicator related to each data set that isconfigured to convey information useful in managing the various datasets. For example, the annotation may be called a “condition header”,“header”, “trailer”, or “status”, herein, and may comprise an indicationof the status of the data set or may include an identifier correlated toa specific issuer or owner of the data. In one example, the first threebytes of each data set BLOB may be configured or configurable toindicate the status of that particular data set; e.g., LOADED,INITIALIZED, READY, BLOCKED, REMOVABLE, or DELETED. Subsequent bytes ofdata may be used to indicate for example, the identity of the issuer,user, transaction/membership account identifier or the like. Each ofthese condition annotations are further discussed herein.

The data set annotation may also be used for other types of statusinformation as well as various other purposes. For example, the data setannotation may include security information establishing access levels.The access levels may, for example, be configured to permit only certainindividuals, levels of employees, companies, or other entities to accessdata sets, or to permit access to specific data sets based on thetransaction, merchant, issuer, user or the like. Furthermore, thesecurity information may restrict/permit only certain actions such asaccessing, modifying, and/or deleting data sets. In one example, thedata set annotation indicates that only the data set owner or the userare permitted to delete a data set, various identified users may bepermitted to access the data set for reading, and others are altogetherexcluded from accessing the data set. However, other access restrictionparameters may also be used allowing various entities to access a dataset with various permission levels as appropriate.

The data, including the header or trailer may be received by astand-alone interaction device configured to add, delete, modify, oraugment the data in accordance with the header or trailer. As such, invarious embodiments, the header or trailer is not stored on thetransaction device along with the associated issuer-owned data butinstead the appropriate action may be taken by providing to thetransaction instrument user at the stand-alone device, the appropriateoption for the action to be taken. System 2100 contemplates a datastorage arrangement wherein the header or trailer, or header or trailerhistory, of the data is stored on the transaction instrument in relationto the appropriate data.

One skilled in the art will also appreciate that, for security reasons,any databases, systems, devices, servers or other components of system2100 may consist of any combination thereof at a single location or atmultiple locations, wherein each database or system 2100 includes any ofvarious suitable security features, such as firewalls, access codes,encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

In addition to those described above, the various system componentsdiscussed herein may include one or more of the following: a host serveror other computing systems including a processor for processing digitaldata; a memory coupled to the processor for storing digital data; aninput digitizer coupled to the processor for inputting digital data; anapplication program stored in the memory and accessible by the processorfor directing processing of digital data by the processor; a displaydevice coupled to the processor and memory for displaying informationderived from digital data processed by the processor; and a plurality ofdatabases. Various databases used herein may include: client data;merchant data; financial institution data; and/or like data useful inthe operation of the present system. As those skilled in the art willappreciate, user computer may include an operating system (e.g., WindowsNT, 95/98/2000, OS2, UNIX, Linux, Solaris, MacOS, etc.) as well asvarious conventional support software and drivers typically associatedwith computers. The computer may include any suitable personal computer,network computer, workstation, minicomputer, mainframe or the like. Usercomputer can be in a home or business environment with access to anetwork. In an exemplary embodiment, access is through a network or theInternet through a commercially-available web-browser software package.

As used herein, the term “network” includes any cloud, cloud computingsystem or electronic communications system or method which incorporateshardware and/or software components. Communication among the parties maybe accomplished through any suitable communication channels, such as,for example, a telephone network, an extranet, an intranet, Internet,point of interaction device (point of sale device, personal digitalassistant (e.g., iPhone®, Palm Pilot®, Blackberry®), cellular phone,kiosk, etc.), online communications, satellite communications, off-linecommunications, wireless communications, transponder communications,local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), virtual privatenetwork (VPN), networked or linked devices, keyboard, mouse and/or anysuitable communication or data input modality. Moreover, although thesystem is frequently described herein as being implemented with TCP/IPcommunications protocols, the system may also be implemented using IPX,Appletalk, IP-6, NetBIOS, OSI, any tunneling protocol (e.g. IPsec, SSH),or any number of existing or future protocols. If the network is in thenature of a public network, such as the Internet, it may be advantageousto presume the network to be insecure and open to eavesdroppers.Specific information related to the protocols, standards, andapplication software utilized in connection with the Internet isgenerally known to those skilled in the art and, as such, need not bedetailed herein. See, for example, DILIP NAIK, INTERNET STANDARDS ANDPROTOCOLS (1998); JAVA 2 COMPLETE, various authors, (Sybex 1999);DEBORAH RAY AND ERIC RAY, MASTERING HTML 4.0 (1997); and LOSHIN, TCP/IPCLEARLY EXPLAINED (1997) and DAVID GOURLEY AND BRIAN TOTTY, HTTP, THEDEFINITIVE GUIDE (2002), the contents of which are hereby incorporatedby reference.

“Cloud” or “Cloud computing” includes a model for enabling convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services)that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal managementeffort or service provider interaction. Cloud computing may includelocation-independent computing, whereby shared servers provideresources, software, and data to computers and other devices on demand.For more information regarding cloud computing, see the NIST's (NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology) definition of cloud computing athttp://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/cloud-computing/cloud-def-v15.doc (lastvisited Feb. 4, 2011), which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

In various embodiments, components, modules, and/or engines of system100 may be implemented as micro-applications or micro-apps. Micro-appsare typically deployed in the context of a mobile operating system,including for example, a Palm mobile operating system, a Windows mobileoperating system, an Android Operating System, Apple iOS, a Blackberryoperating system and the like. The micro-app may be configured toleverage the resources of the larger operating system and associatedhardware via, a set of predetermined rules which govern the operationsof various operating systems and hardware resources. For example, wherea micro-app desires to communicate with a device or network other thanthe mobile device or mobile operating system, the micro-app may leveragethe communication protocol of the operating system and associated devicehardware under the predetermined rules of the mobile operating system.Moreover, where the micro-app desires an input from a user, themicro-app may be configured to request a response from the operatingsystem which monitors various hardware components and then communicatesa detected input from the hardware to the micro-app.

The disclosure may be described herein in terms of functional blockcomponents, screen shots, optional selections and various processingsteps. It should be appreciated that such functional blocks may berealized by any number of hardware and/or software components configuredto perform the specified functions. For example, system 2100 may employvarious integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, processingelements, logic elements, look-up tables, and/or the like, which maycarry out a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of system 2100 may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, Java, COBOL, assembler, PERL, VisualBasic, SQL Stored Procedures, extensible markup language (XML), with thevarious algorithms being implemented with any combination of datastructures, objects, processes, routines or other programming elements.Further, it should be noted that system 2100 may employ any number ofconventional techniques for data transmission, signaling, dataprocessing, network control, and/or the like. Still further, system 2100could be used to detect or prevent security issues with a client-sidescripting language, such as JavaScript, VBScript or the like. For abasic introduction of cryptography and network security, see any of thefollowing references: (1) “Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms,And Source Code In C,” by Bruce Schneier, published by John Wiley & Sons(second edition, 1995); (2) “Java Cryptography” by Jonathan Knudson,published by O'Reilly & Associates (1998); (3) “Cryptography & NetworkSecurity: Principles & Practice” by William Stallings, published byPrentice Hall; all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

These software elements may be loaded onto a general purpose computer,special purpose computer, or other programmable data processingapparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions that executeon the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus createmeans for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block orblocks. These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks.The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in theflowchart block or blocks.

Accordingly, functional blocks of the block diagrams and flowchartillustrations support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions,and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. Itwill also be understood that each functional block of the block diagramsand flowchart illustrations, and combinations of functional blocks inthe block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, may be implemented byeither special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform thespecified functions or steps, or suitable combinations of specialpurpose hardware and computer instructions. Further, illustrations ofthe process flows and the descriptions thereof may make reference touser windows, web pages, web sites, web forms, prompts, etc.Practitioners will appreciate that the illustrated steps describedherein may comprise in any number of configurations including the use ofwindows, web pages, web forms, popup windows, prompts and/or the like.It should be further appreciated that the multiple steps as illustratedand described may be combined into single web pages and/or windows buthave been expanded for the sake of simplicity. In other cases, stepsillustrated and described as single process steps may be separated intomultiple web pages and/or windows but have been combined for simplicity.

Practitioners will appreciate that there are a number of methods fordisplaying data within a browser-based document. Data may be representedas standard text or within a fixed list, scrollable list, drop-downlist, editable text field, fixed text field, pop-up window, and/or thelike. Likewise, there are a number of methods available for modifyingdata in a web page such as, for example, free text entry using akeyboard, selection of menu items, cheek boxes, option boxes, and/or thelike.

In various embodiments, RCP 130 includes application programminginterfaces that enable third parties to create, configure, manage,modify, update, delete, report on, and enhance reward offers andmarketing programs. For example, a program provider (e.g., an LPP orTAP) may wish to create a custom application (“partner application”)that serves as a front-end or interface to RCP 130. The partnerapplication accesses RCP 130 via various application programminginterfaces (APIs). In various embodiments, the APIs may include apartner registration API, an offer set-up API, an enrollment API, atransaction API, a trigger API, a partner registration API, a reportingAPI and a marketing channel API. RCP 130 is a robust extensible platformthat enables, in various embodiments, a variety of APIs for accessing avariety of functions. While some APIs may correspond directly to afunction that may be desired by a partner, others may provide access tocore functionality such as, for example, APIs for accessing workflowfunctionality or for accessing database query functionality.

FIG. 14 includes one embodiment of RCP 130 and a plurality of API's. Asshown, RCP 130 may be configured to communicate with (or executecomputer programs for) an approval portal, a workflow engine and anumber of internal and external databases.

Partner registration API 2205 may enable a marketing partner to accessRCP 130 in order to register with and configure access to RCP 130. Invarious embodiments, a developer portal provides an interface to partnerusers and a registration request is sent via partner registration API2205 to RCP 130. RCP 130 validates the registration request and executesa workflow to provision a partner user identification code (“user id”)and an API access code. RCP 130 saves a partner profile in the partnerdatabase 2210. In various embodiments, RCP 130 allocates memory,databases, file structure and/or other system resources to be used bypartner users in testing and in production. In various embodiments,based upon a workflow and/or predefined business rules, RCP 130 executeslogic to approve the registration request. The process to approve theregistration request may be completely automated and/or may comprisesteps whereby RCP administrators provide a manual approval. RCP 130sends the registration information (e.g., user id and access code) tothe partner user. A partner user and/or a RCP administrator may alsoaccess RCP 130 via partner registration API 2205 in order to updatepartner details, and terminate the partner if needed.

Offer setup API 2215 may allow a partner to build their own offer set uptool, may provide access to their own internal users, and/or may allowthe partner to open up the tool to external users of their applicationor service (e.g., a user base of merchants or a company representingmerchants). In various embodiments, offer setup API 2215 enablesreceiving a offer setup request; parsing the offer set up request intooffer parameters; validating the offer setup request and/or the offerparameters; notifying a first approver of the offer setup request;receiving from the first approver, an approval of the offer set uprequest; saving an offer comprising the first offer parameters;associating the offer associated with a marketing program; anddetermining a first population of transaction accounts that comply withfirst offer criteria.

In various embodiments, the parsing includes applying logical and/orbusiness rules to a request to divide, reorganize, translate and/oraugment the data associated with a request. In various embodiments,parsing may be accomplished as part of the data validation processand/or as part of populating the data in a database. Data validationincludes applying logical and/or business rules in order to ensure thatdata is received in, for example, an expected format and/or structureand that the data conforms in content to business rules that govern thedata. Business rules used to parse the data may be based upon, forexample, a partner, an offer, a product, an industry, a promotion, aprogram, a transaction processor, an issuer or any combination of theseor other factors. Data that fails validation may cause an error to besent to the system that sent the data and/or may cause RCP 130administrator staff to examine and or modify the data.

Thus, a RCP 138 user (e.g., a partner) may use offer setup API 2215 toconfigure marketing programs and offers and to determine a population oftransaction accounts that may be eligible for a program. Such data maybe useful to a marketing partner in analyzing and targeting a particularpromotion. Offer setup API 2215 may also enable a partner to specifycriteria (e.g., define qualifying transactions, behaviors, events orthresholds) that qualify for a reward. The offer criteria may includeany combination of a customer identifier, a customer demographic, acustomer location, spend frequency, a spend threshold, a spend history,an award cap, a tiered reward requirement, a product identifier, aproduct category, a stockkeeping unit (SKU), a universal product code(UPC), a QR code, a merchant, a merchant type, an industry, a merchantlocation. Thus, offer set up API 2215 enables a partner to enter,maintain, analyze reward eligibility and configure RCP 130 to executethe offer. These constructs may enable highly targeted marketingpromotions tailored to the specific needs of the partner, or thepartner's user base. Any or all of these factors may also be used toexclude transaction accounts that may participate in an offer and/orprovide criteria for excluding or withholding a reward.

In various embodiments, offer setup API also enables a partner toconfigure how offer costs are collected from a participating serviceestablishment (e.g., merchant). For example, offer costs can be debitedfrom the merchant account associated with where the qualifyingtransaction actually occurred (e.g., where a customer transacted), orfrom a single merchant specified by the partner. Offer setup API alsoenables a partner to configure the amount, currency and manner in whichrewards are distributed. For example, in addition to fulfilling viastatement credits, output files can be generated and passed to thepartner to enable new types of fulfillment such as social currency. Invarious embodiments, RCP 130 determines that a qualifying transaction(and or event) has occurred and calculates a reward for a member ortransaction account. Distributing the reward may include crediting afirst transaction account, crediting a second transaction account,crediting a rewards account associated with the first transactionaccount, performing a currency conversion, crediting a social networkingcurrency and sending reward data to a third party, where the third partyapplies the reward based upon the reward data.

Enrollment API 2220 may enable RCP 130 to capture enrollments fromprograms set up through the offer set up API. It may enable a partner tobuild their own enrollment functionality and embed the feature intotheir application. For example, a partner may design a rewards programand wish to solicit participation and enable enrollment in the programusing a variety of different methods such as via an email message, alink, a uniform resource locator (URL), a customized web page, a webpage hosted by the automated marketing system, a social networking website, an app, a text message and a mobile application. Thus, the partnermay define, via the enrollment API, that a web page be generated andhosted via RCP 130 and used to receive and process enrollments in aprogram. In various embodiments, the partner may define, via theenrollment API, a custom web page (or URL) by which enrollment may occurand, optionally, may define a access requirements (e.g., userid/password) for enrolling in a program.

The partner may use (e.g., via a custom application or website)enrollment API 2220 to enter and configure enrollment parameters in RCP130. Enrollment parameters may include defining an enrollment process,instructions for generating a hosted enrollment page, a referral uniformresource locator (URL), a user id, a password, a passcode, an enrollmenttimeframe, and an enrollment cap, and enrollee (e.g., offer or programparticipant) tracking data requirements. The enrollee trackingrequirements may include a user id, email address, password, productcode, and transaction location; thus, the enrollment API is useful indefining how a transaction account or member may enroll in a program anddefining data and events by which the partner may track a member'sactivity. Thus, a partner, program provider or issuer may capture theuser ID/e-mail/phone number/password, product category, or other uniqueidentifier(s) (QR code or marketing channel information) and/or maytrack this information during a program in order to enable additionalreporting metrics, specific product opt-ins, and/or the trigger APIfunctionality (discussed below).

Reporting API 2225 may enable real-time, or near real-time, results toan interfacing system (e.g., partner system). Using reporting API 2225,the partner can also define reports and data to be distributed to thirdparties such as, for example, program participants (merchants andcustomer), news sites, social media networks, etc. Reporting API mayprovide the ability to define and/or access a wide range of cumulativeand incremental metrics. The metrics may include, for example, number ofenrollments, CV, avg. ROC, number discounts, money discounts (oralternate fulfillment method). The partner and the partner's users willalso have the ability to opt-in for in-depth pre/post-campaign metrics.Additional fields captured during enrollment can also be appended toreporting data and passed back to the partner.

Transaction API 2230 may enable a partner to define transactions and/orevents that trigger data to be shared with a third party. For example, atransaction account issuer may allow their customers (e.g., transactionaccount owners) to opt-in to triggered data sharing so that when acustomer initiates a transaction, data regarding that transaction isposted to a user's social networking account. For example, a customerswipes a transaction account card at a local florist when purchasingflowers, RCP 138 receives transaction details from the transactionaccount authorization process, and details regarding the transaction(e.g., merchant name, location, transaction amount, product, producttype, time of transaction, etc.) are sent via transaction API to theFacebook account of the consumer. Thus, in various embodiments, RCP 138leverages the transaction account authorization process to provide a newcapability which allows customers to share transaction information inreal-time.

Transaction API 2230 may enable a real-time service allowing customersto automatically share their spend behavior with social networks,smartphone applications, and other 3rd party destinations. In variousembodiments, customers opt-in for this service, and select criteria fortheir spend information will be shared (e.g. “only share transactions atrestaurants, but never share transactions at jewelry stores.”)

In various embodiments, RCP 138 receives, via transaction API 2230, adata sharing opt-in associated with the first transaction account,wherein the data sharing opt-in defines data sharing transactions forwhich the first user authorizes personal data sharing. RCP 138 obtainstransaction notification data for a transaction authorization requestassociated with the first transaction account and determines that thetransaction authorization request qualifies as a data sharingtransaction. RCP 130 sends data associated with the transactionauthorization request to at least one of a web site, a social networkingsite, a social networking application, a third party, an individual, anda social networking account of a friend.

Trigger API 2235 may enable a partner to define conditions and/or eventsthat trigger a message or data (“alerts”) to be sent passed to thepartner or other 3rd parties. In various embodiments, trigger API 2235enables a partner to configure and manage managed alerts, or alerts forits users who are merchants (or representing merchants). The partner mayconfigure trigger alerts based on any data accessible to RCP 138 (e.g.,customer, merchant or product specific data), any calculation orbusiness rule associated with the data (e.g., a counter, accumulation orthreshold)

In various embodiments, RCP 130 receives, via a trigger API, a triggeredevent request defining triggered alert parameters for triggered offeralerts. Wherein the triggered event parameters define offer alerts basedupon at least one of: a number of enrollments for an offer; a number ofauthorization requests associated with an offer, a number ofauthorization requests associated with a transaction account, an awardcap, an award threshold, a tiered reward requirement, a productidentifier, a product category, a stock-keeping unit (SKU), a QR code, auniversal product code (UPC), a merchant, a merchant type, an industry,a merchant location, and an marketing program result. In variousembodiments, RCP 130 receives, via a trigger API, a triggered eventrequest defining triggered alert parameters for triggered customeralerts, wherein the triggered event parameters define customer alertsbased upon at least one of: offer progress, program progress,authorization requests associated with an offer, spend associated withan offer, spend associated with a program, spend associated with amerchant, a cross promotion, a second offer, an offer achievement and acustomized message. RCP 138 monitors it's databases and event logs forcriteria for which a trigger is defined, formats a trigger alert anddistributes the alert according to distribution criteria defined by theparticular trigger parameters.

Marketing channel API 2240 may enable a partner to query offer database452 and/or other data sources. For example, via offer setup API 2215 arestaurant offers for 5% credit for all meals purchased on Sundays andoffers 1% of the transaction value to marketing partners that sign upcustomers. A marketing channel partner (e.g., Groupon) uses marketingchannel API 2240 to query the database, find this offer and opt-in topromoting the offer through the marketing channel. The marketing channelpartner uses marketing channel API to determine merchant name, offerdetails (logo, Ts & Cs, dates etc.), offer construct, merchant location(address and longitude/latitude) for use in the promotion.

In various embodiments, RCP 130 receives, from a requestor and via amarketing channel API, a marketing channel request for a list of atleast one of marketing channels, offers and programs. RCP 130 sends, viathe marketing channel API, the list to the requestor associated with themarketing channel request. The list includes a merchant name, programdetails, offer details, offer terms and conditions, an advertisement, alogo and/or a merchant location. RCP receives, via the marketing channelAPI, a marketing channel opt-in request associates the requestor with atleast one of a marketing channel, a program and an offer associated withthe opt-in request.

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments herein makes referenceto the accompanying drawings and pictures, which show the exemplaryembodiment by way of illustration and its best mode. While theseexemplary embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable thoseskilled in the art to practice the disclosure, it should be understoodthat other embodiments may be realized and that logical and mechanicalchanges may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure. Thus, the detailed description herein is presented forpurposes of illustration only and not of limitation. For example, thesteps recited in any of the method or process descriptions may beexecuted in any order and are not limited to the order presented.Moreover, any of the functions or steps may be outsourced to orperformed by one or more third parties. Furthermore, any reference tosingular includes plural embodiments, and any reference to more than onecomponent may include a singular embodiment.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed herein with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any elements that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of the disclosure. The scope of the disclosure isaccordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, inwhich reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean“one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one ormore.” Moreover, where a phrase similar to at least one of A, B, or C isused in the claims or specification, it is intended that the phrase beinterpreted to mean that A alone may be present in various embodiments,B alone may be present in various embodiments, C alone may be present invarious embodiments, or that any combination of the elements A, B and Cmay be present in a single embodiment; for example, A and B, A and C, Band C, or A and B and C. All structural, chemical, and functionalequivalents to the elements of the above-described exemplary embodimentsthat are known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expresslyincorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed bythe present claims. Further, a list of elements does not include onlythose elements but may include other elements not expressly listed orinherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: linking, by a computerbased system, a transaction account of a user with a first third partybroadcast platform and a second third party broadcast platform, whereinthe transaction account of the user is associated with first profileinformation for the first third party broadcast platform and secondprofile information for the second third party broadcast platform;receiving, by a broadcast monitoring module of the computer based systemresiding with a broadcast channel, a first set of broadcasts from thefirst third party broadcast platform; identifying, by the broadcastmonitoring module of the computer based system and based on the offerindicator, a first subset of broadcasts from the first set ofbroadcasts; wherein a broadcast in the first subset of broadcastscomprises the offer indicator, wherein the offer indicator is associatedwith an offer, wherein the offer indicator is associated with offerinformation that defines the offer, wherein the offer is converted to beconfigured for use in the broadcast, and receiving, by the broadcastmonitoring module of the computer based system, a second set ofbroadcasts from the second third party broadcast platform; identifying,by the broadcast monitoring module of the computer based system andbased on the offer indicator, a second subset of broadcasts from thesecond set of broadcasts; wherein a broadcast in the second subset ofbroadcasts comprises the offer indicator, parsing each broadcast of atleast one of the first set of broadcasts or the second set ofbroadcasts, by the computer based system, to identify the offerindicator and a source of the broadcast; correlating, by the computerbased system and in response to the identifying the offer indicator andbased on the associating the transaction account of the user and atleast one of the first profile information or second profileinformation, the offer with the transaction account of the user and thesource of the broadcast, wherein the user is the source of thebroadcast; associating, by the computer based system, the offer definedby the offer indicator to the transaction account of the user inresponse to the correlating; generating, by the computer based system,notification instructions, wherein the notification instructions areprovided to at least one of the first third party broadcast platform orthe second third party broadcast platform, and wherein the at least oneof the first third party broadcast platform or the second third partybroadcast platform transmits a notification of the offer and the offerbased on the notification instructions to the user in the at least oneof the first third party broadcast platform or the second third partybroadcast platform; receiving, by the computer based system, transactioninformation associated with the transaction account of the user;comparing, by the computer based system, the offer to the transactioninformation; and crediting, by the computer based system, an amountassociated with the offer to the transaction account of the user basedon the broadcast, in response to the transaction information satisfyingthe offer information.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcastis transmitted via a push based short message service.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the broadcast is published through at least one of YouTube, Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinthe offer indicator comprises a # and a keyword.
 5. The method of claim4, wherein the keyword comprises an indicator associated with amerchant.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:inviting, by the computer based system, the user to associate thetransaction account with the first third party broadcast platform anduse the offer, in response to the transaction account not being synchedto the first third party broadcast platform associated with the offer;or inviting, by the computer based system, the user to register for thetransaction account and synch the transaction account with the firstthird party broadcast platform and use the offer, in response to theuser not being associated with the transaction account.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the receiving the first set of broadcasts and thesecond set of broadcasts comprises monitoring the broadcast from thesource.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the offer indicator includes ahashtag.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcast is transmittedthrough Twitter, and wherein the offer indicator is a hashtag.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the offer indicator is defined by a merchantand comprises text associated with the merchant.
 11. The method of claim1, wherein the first third party broadcast platform is capable ofparsing broadcasts received by the first third party broadcast platformand compiling the first set of broadcasts into the first subset ofbroadcasts as a result of the parsing, and wherein the first third partybroadcast platform is capable of transmitting the first subset ofbroadcasts to the computer based system.
 12. The method of claim 1,wherein the offer indicator is defined by a manufacturer and comprisestext associated with a product.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein theoffer indicator comprises at least one of a picture, a graphicalelement, or a sound.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the offercomprises a first parameter defining the nature of the broadcast and asecond parameter defining how to accept the offer.
 15. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: verifying, by the computer based system,that the transaction account of the user is eligible to sync with thefirst third party broadcast platform and the second third partybroadcast platform; verifying, by the computer based system, that thetransaction account of the user is eligible to receive offers via thefirst third party broadcast platform and the second third partybroadcast platform, wherein the verification is based on at least one ofuser account type, user spending level, user payment history, userspending history, user creditworthiness, or user enrollment in loyaltyprograms.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein the first third partybroadcast platform profile information is at least one of a useridentifier, an e-mail address, Twitter handle, or a username.
 17. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the offer indicator is defined by at leastone of an account issuer or a third party.
 18. The method of claim 1,further comprising: displaying, by the computer based system and to theuser, the offer in a webpage having a database that is searchable forthe offer; providing, by the computer based system and to the user, theoffer indicator for the offer; displaying, by the computer based system,an indicator of the first third party broadcast platform within thewebpage.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium havingstored thereon sequences of instructions, the sequences of instructionsincluding instructions which, when executed by a computer based system,cause the computer based system to perform operations comprising:linking, by the computer based system, a transaction account of a userwith a first third party broadcast platform and a second third partybroadcast platform, wherein the transaction account of the user isassociated with first profile information for the first third partybroadcast platform and second profile information for the second thirdparty broadcast platform; receiving, by a broadcast monitoring module ofthe computer based system residing with a broadcast channel, a first setof broadcasts from the first third party broadcast platform;identifying, by the broadcast monitoring module of the computer basedsystem and based on the offer indicator, a first subset of broadcastsfrom the first set of broadcasts; wherein a broadcast in the firstsubset of broadcasts comprises the offer indicator, wherein the offerindicator is associated with an offer, wherein the offer indicator isassociated with offer information that defines the offer, wherein theoffer is converted to be configured for use in the broadcast, andreceiving, by the broadcast monitoring module of the computer basedsystem, a second set of broadcasts from the second third party broadcastplatform; identifying, by the broadcast monitoring module of thecomputer based system and based on the offer indicator, a second subsetof broadcasts from the second set of broadcasts; wherein a broadcast inthe second subset of broadcasts comprises the offer indicator, parsingeach broadcast of at least one of the first set of broadcasts or thesecond set of broadcasts, by the computer based system, to identify theoffer indicator and a source of the broadcast; correlating, by thecomputer based system and in response to the identifying the offerindicator and based on the associating the transaction account of theuser and at least one of the first profile information or second profileinformation, the offer with the transaction account of the user and thesource of the broadcast, wherein the user is the source of thebroadcast; associating, by the computer based system, the offer definedby the offer indicator to the transaction account of the user inresponse to the correlating; generating, by the computer based system,notification instructions, wherein the notification instructions areprovided to at least one of the first third party broadcast platform orthe second third party broadcast platform, and wherein the at least oneof the first third party broadcast platform or the second third partybroadcast platform transmits a notification of the offer and the offerbased on the notification instructions to the user in the at least oneof the first third party broadcast platform or the second third partybroadcast platform; receiving, by the computer based system, transactioninformation associated with the transaction account of the user;comparing, by the computer based system, the offer to the transactioninformation; and crediting, by the computer based system, an amountassociated with the offer to the transaction account of the user basedon the broadcast, in response to the transaction information satisfyingthe offer information.
 20. A computer based system comprising: aprocessor; a tangible, non-transitory memory communicating with theprocessor; and the processor, when executing a computer program, iscapable of performing operations comprising: linking, by the processor,a transaction account of a user with a first third party broadcastplatform and a second third party broadcast platform, wherein thetransaction account of the user is associated with first profileinformation for the first third party broadcast platform and secondprofile information for the second third party broadcast platform;receiving, by a broadcast monitoring module of the processor residingwith a broadcast channel, a first set of broadcasts from the first thirdparty broadcast platform; identifying, by the broadcast monitoringmodule of the processor and based on the offer indicator, a first subsetof broadcasts from the first set of broadcasts; wherein a broadcast inthe first subset of broadcasts comprises the offer indicator, whereinthe offer indicator is associated with an offer, wherein the offerindicator is associated with offer information that defines the offer,wherein the offer is converted to be configured for use in thebroadcast, and receiving, by the broadcast monitoring module of theprocessor, a second set of broadcasts from the second third partybroadcast platform; identifying, by the broadcast monitoring module ofthe processor and based on the offer indicator, a second subset ofbroadcasts from the second set of broadcasts; wherein a broadcast in thesecond subset of broadcasts comprises the offer indicator, parsing eachbroadcast of at least one of the first set of broadcasts or the secondset of broadcasts, by the processor, to identify the offer indicator anda source of the broadcast; correlating, by the processor and in responseto the identifying the offer indicator and based on the associating thetransaction account of the user and at least one of the first profileinformation or second profile information, the offer with thetransaction account of the user and the source of the broadcast, whereinthe user is the source of the broadcast; associating, by the processor,the offer defined by the offer indicator to the transaction account ofthe user in response to the correlating; generating, by the processor,notification instructions, wherein the notification instructions areprovided to at least one of the first third party broadcast platform orthe second third party broadcast platform, and wherein the at least oneof the first third party broadcast platform or the second third partybroadcast platform transmits a notification of the offer and the offerbased on the notification instructions to the user in the at least oneof the first third party broadcast platform or the second third partybroadcast platform; receiving, by the processor, transaction informationassociated with the transaction account of the user; comparing, by theprocessor, the offer to the transaction information; and crediting, bythe processor, an amount associated with the offer to the transactionaccount of the user based on the broadcast, in response to thetransaction information satisfying the offer information.